[Squaredancing] Re: Calling for a Deaf Person

[Ron Nelson]

>From: Mike Gormley <WA8VEC at ARRL.NET>
>Reply-To: This list for discussing all aspect of MWSD 
><Squaredancing at rbnsn.com>
>To: sd-callers at all8.com
>CC: Dosado at yahoogroups.com, squaredancing at rbnsn.com, sd-abc at all8.com
>Subject: [Squaredancing] Re: Calling for a Deaf Person
>Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:20:37 -0400
>
>Kenritucci at aol.com wrote:
>
>>A local club is going to be having a totally deaf person attempt to take 
>>lessons this year. They asked me if I could solicit any ideas out there of 
>>callers/clubs who might have attempted to do this and how it was handled.
>>  Has anyone ever attempted this?
>>  Thanks,
>>  Ken
>
>Sounds like an interesting challenge. I have no experience with this.   It 
>seems like this question came up once before on one of the many mailing 
>lists.
>
>Mike Gormley
>Florida Keys


I have had the experience of teaching a deaf person to square dance. He 
joined a class I taught for the Finest City Squares, San Diego's gay and 
lesbian club.  His partner was an experienced dancer. They had a published 
list of calls with hand signals for each. I never attempted to learn the 
hand signals, but some of the other dancers learned a few of them.

He learned to dance the ladies' role exclusively. Mostly he could get by 
simply by observing his opposite counterpart. He went all the way into 
Advanced classes, though I don't recall if he ever achieved full A2 
capapbility.

I expect that somewhere someone had a copy of those hand signals. I know we 
have a significant number of gay callers on this list. Perhaps one of them 
has knowledge of where this call list might be.  The dancer I taught is no 
longer dancing. His partner is deceased (heart attack). so I don't know 
where else to go with this.

Ron Nelson
Chula Vista, CA