No Shoes Aloud

The music blasts as the dancers kick their legs high. I sit on the side, feeling the rhythm flow through me. I tap my fingers to the beat. I just can’t sit still. I can’t wait for my favorite friend in the whole wide world to show up. This will be Harmony’s first dance class ever, but I can help her. I’ve been taking dance for three whole months now, so I know all about it.

The studio door swings open, and I grin at Harmony. My smile disappears when I see who’s standing behind her . . . Demi . . . Harmony’s copycat little sister.

Demi tackles me with a sticky hug. Harmony plops down and peels off her sneakers. She pulls new ballet shoes out of her bag and slips them on. I point to my bare feet. At my dance school, we don’t wear shoes. “We like to feel the floor,” I sign to Harmony.

“What’d Ryan say?” Demi asks. I can’t hear her, but I know that’s what she’s saying because that’s what she always says when I use sign language.

Harmony and Demi’s dad is my sign language interpreter at our school. He taught Harmony lots of American Sign Language, which is called ASL for short. Demi doesn’t know much ASL yet.

Harmony tells her what I signed. Demi asks, “Why?”

“No shoes make it easier to feel the vibrations of the music,” I sign.

Harmony gives Demi my answer. Demi lifts her eyebrows and speaks. Harmony signs, “Demi wants to know what a vibration is.”

Hmm…this is tricky to explain to such a little kid. “When there is a noise, sound waves shoot out super fast and bump into stuff, making it wiggle back and forth.”

Harmony is talking as fast as I’m signing. Demi looks around like she expects to suddenly see everything wiggling.

“It’s just a teeny tiny wiggle. Most times you can’t see it. But you can feel it, like in the wood floor when the bass is really pumping,” I add.

Demi stares at the floor with her face scrunched up. Some people think you hear music only with your ears, and I feel bad for them. They are missing out. I feel music with my whole body.

The song ends. The big kids bow to Miss Isabel. They leave, all signing about how much fun class was. Like me, most kids at my dance school are in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.

It’s finally our turn! We rush to Miss Isabel and sit in a circle. Miss Isabel signs, “Hello, class.” She talks out loud too, so kids who don’t know ASL won’t feel left out. “Are you ready to dance?”

I always use my hands, face, and body to communicate. Dancing is telling a story and showing feelings using your body, so dancing comes easily to me.

Miss Isabel passes out drumsticks. She taps her drumsticks on the floor once. Then she taps them together twice. She taps the floor once again. She is creating a pattern.

Now we try. When I hit my drumsticks together, I feel tiny tingles. When everybody pounds the floor at the same time, the vibration is super strong. I can feel somebody is off beat. I look around. Demi wildly drums in no pattern at all! Miss Isabel signs and speaks, “Great job.” She collects the drumsticks.

She turns on the music. I feel a happy rumbling. Led by Miss Isabel, we stomp the rhythm with our feet and count with our fingers. We are getting to know the feel of the song. Each instrument creates a different kind of vibration. This song is fast with lots of bass. My favorite kind!

Miss Isabel demonstrates our new hip-hop routine. I watch her closely while counting in my head. Then we learn our dance step by step. We practice, practice, practice until we know it by heart.

At the end of class, we do what Miss Isabel calls “freestyle.” That means we get to rock out however we want. I do a huge leap. Harmony is super impressed. Harmony does a cartwheel. I am super impressed.

Demi twirls around and around like a tornado. She crashes in a giggle fit. With her cheek pressed against the floor, Demi’s eyes pop open with wonder. She grins at me and makes wiggly sound waves with her arm. She can feel the vibrations!

I feel bad for wishing she hadn’t come. Demi wants to dance. Anybody who wants to dance should get the chance. I grab her hand and pull her up. I grab Harmony’s hand too. Together we spin, dancing our hearts out. We may not experience music the same way, but that’s what is so neat about music. We love it because of the way it makes us feel.