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Title: When the body speaks: Deaf Armenian dancer communicates with the world through music View count: 886 Rating: 5.0 (2 ratings) Description: Hayk Hobosyan was 11 when he first saw Michael Jackson dance on TV and at once was captivated with the graceful body language performed by the King of Pop. Hobosyan realized that most of all he wanted to dance like his idol and in a few years many in Armenia saw Habosyans performance and some even called him a phenomenon. Hobosyan danced with determination and skill. But unlike his idol, the Armenian dancer could not hear the music. At five months old, Hayk lost his hearing due to an infection. Now 26, he has lived on senses that dont require sound. (Using a hearing aid, he can hear four percent.) And while many would wonder how is possible to dance without hearing the music, Hobosyan says dance is passion, an inseparable part of his life explaining thoughts with gestures and low sounds. He says that as soon as his father realized that his son wanted to dance, he took him to classes at Arai Dance Show dancing group. Yes, it was hard for me at first, says Hobosyan, 26. I am different from the other children in the group. But my first teacher and generally everybody helped me a lot. I managed to integrate into dancing. In fact, Hoboaysan is now a lead dancer of Arai Dance Show, which performs at different shows and concerts in Armenia. Hayk specializes in hip hop, break dancing and Latino. Fellow lead dancer Anida Abgaryan remembers the first time she saw Hayk dance. I met him during a festival we both were participating in and Hayk was only 11. He was dancing amazingly for that age, but I did not know anything about him being deaf until it was announced that Hayk won a Grand Prix. The whole audience was applauding standing, parents were crying, and I understood that little boy was a phenomenon, says Abgaryan, 29. Abgaryan calls Hayk the sun of our group, and she considers him to be one of the best experts of dance language in Armenia, who never gives you a room to think that he differs from others. We are the same. The difference is that he is kinder, and I even sometimes envy him, because in many cases he does not hear how malicious people can be, he does not notice some shortcomings of the world, she says. When head of Arai Karen Mikayelyan admitted Hayk to the dancing group, he did not imagine the day would come when the student would emerge to be a lead dancer. When first Hayks father brought him here, we faced with a big dilemma (adding that he had never had a deaf student). But it turned out that I never regretted that I accepted him to our group, because he was a very smart child, and he gave us even more than we could have expected, Mikayelyan remembers. He has such a huge amount of inner strength, that those emotions that we get from music, he already has them inside of him. The dancer has a dream - to find a proper studio where he can lead the dance class and pass his favorite language skills to all the children who like him want to dance. Hobosyan was promised to get a room in deaf peoples palace in September. The dancer dreams, too, of joining his father who is in Los Angeles. While he, his mother, sister and brother live in Yerevan, his father has been in Los Angeles for five years. The father initially worked as an accountant and had hoped to bring Hayk to the States. Now, though, he is a taxi driver. Hayk has applied for a visa four times, including at the same time as his father. But he has been denied. He says he thinks its because hes deaf. In Armenia several dancing groups of deaf people are headed by people who can hear. Hayks uniqueness can be found also in that he can teach through demonstration even those who are not hearing impaired. He recently finished teaching a hip hop class for hearing impaired children, and hip hop and Latino for hearing children. He plans to start another class in September. Tags: armenianow.com, Author: armenianow |
