[Blindtlk] Can a person's movement be affected by blindness?

[Gary Wunder]

Hello Jim. I really appreciate your post and admire the courage that it took
to ask these questions. I wonder if Robert Leslie Newman has covered
anything like this in his thought-provoker series. 

I am not a performer, but I certainly have encountered a number of
situations in which I felt at a real disadvantage by not being able to
visually observe what other people do. I tend to be somewhat stiff, and when
people are showing me things they always encouraged me to relax. This used
to perplex me because I always felt very relaxed. To me, I was not being
stiff. I was just being normal.

I like slow dancing, but fast dancing has always been something of a mystery
to me. I don't quite understand all of the gestures and movements people
use. One night, after a few drinks, my friends encouraged me rather strongly
to just let go and be myself. They said that I was wrong to assume that
there was some technique to fast dancing and the gestures that were used. If
only I would limber up and just enjoy myself, I would find that I could do
something I had thought impossible. So, feeling the drinks, wanting to learn
to fast dance, and trusting completely and my friends, I went out on the
dance floor, listened to the music, matched the rhythm, and started hopping
around and swinging my arms in a way which felt fun. Very quickly those
friends came to my side and said "stop that! What in the world are you
doing?" So, what I learned from that was that, whether sighted people
realize it or not, they are doing what they feel but within a very limited
and unspoken range of motion.

Being totally blind, I too have had to learn something about the
appropriateness of a smile and how reason doesn't always tell you how to do
what people expect. I think a smile comes naturally, but variations on that
smile do not. I used to smile just a bit when something was moderately
funny, and quite of lot when I found it very funny. I thought that the
degree to which one smiled was an indication of how happy he was, so when
people would ask to take my picture, I would try to give them the biggest
smile I could. When I was Little people thought it was cute. When I got
older people told me I looked like a monkey or a young child. That wasn't
very flattering, but I suppose it was better than going through life making
a smile which was inappropriate for pictures.

I guess one of the fundamental questions we have to deal with is to what
degree we can imitate behavior we can't see. We are wonderful
conversationalist because we have no trouble hearing, but how far can we
really get with gestures? We know, for example, that deaf people can be
taught to talk. We are amazed by it. The accomplishment is tremendous.
Still, there is no question when you hear a deaf person talk that they are
deaf or that they have some kind of significant speech impediment. I believe
that you could teach a deaf person the lines uttered by McBeth in
Shakespeare's play, but I'm almost as certain that you could never teach the
correct intonation so he would do it as well as a great Shakespearean actor.
I feel the same limitation when it comes to facial expressions and gestures.
I believe I can be courteous and face in the direction of the person with
whom I'm conversing, but I don't think I can ever master the art of eye
contact and don't think I will ever be mistaken for a person who can see or
who has seen before. I'd love to be wrong and be able to learn my way into
making other people more comfortable, but no one has shown me a way to do
it.

Since developing some kind of attractive stage performance is important to
you, I would suggest that you start with a group of trusted friends and let
them know that you are going to experiment. What you will need most is their
honest unvarnished feedback. They can probably teach you some things that
you don't know which will allow you to move more freely and appear less
wooden. Just because you aren't likely to win the prize for the greatest
stage presence doesn't mean you shouldn't work on improving yours, and I
think you have already shown that you are brave enough to ask for
constructive criticism and to try implementing what is suggested.

I wish you all the success in the world, and keep making your music.

Gary

P.S. You might try sharpening and shortening your question and sending it to
Ms. Whosit. She has a good bit of experience and always brings some
common-sense answers to her loyal readers.

GW



-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jim
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 12:13 PM
To: Jim
Subject: [Blindtlk] Can a person's movement be affected by blindness?

Hello everyone,

 

I know this topic might have been briefly brought up by me in the Blindtalk
(August 2008 forum).  I've asked questions of a similar nature, but I think
this goes a bit deeper.  If we've talked about this before, please forgive
me.  I hope this will spark some good discussion.  I also hope to hear from
folks with all degrees of blindness, especially from those who have been
totally blind for a long time, or since birth.  This issue is beginning to
affect me enough to want to try doing something about it.  Perhaps as a
precursor, go through the archives and look at a question I sent back in
August of 2008 dealing with extra hands on for the congenitally blind.  This
goes one or two steps beyond my initial questions.

 

As many of you know, I've been blind since birth.  I think I was raised
pretty normally.  From what I was told, it had been recommended to my mom
that as a baby that I go see a kids' physical therapist to help get me to
move a bit more and a bit more freely.  More than anything, she helped
solidify the whole "up/down and left/right" concepts, among other things.
That was fine, and I was up and about as any other kid was.  The whole
blindism thing was also nipped in the bud at a very young age as well.  In
fact, it might have been nipped too well, because to this day, even when I'm
totally relaxed, I am generally one who sits quite still.  I can still
remember my family telling me to sit or stand still when we'd be at other
people's homes, stores, or other places where I was in public.  I wasn't the
type to really get in trouble for running around places and causing mischief
in that way.  While I played outside in my home area, I don't ever really
remember getting into trouble by just going off and exploring and
terrorizing other areas the way little kids I know would have done.  I was
pretty peaceful and content.  My thing was always trying to look good and
fit in with the regular crowd.

 

I never really thought about any of that kind of thing until recently.  I
find myself on stage more and more, performing and playing music either by
myself or with two other friends.  I've begun hearing advice such as, "You
need to look like you're enjoying what you're doing.", or "I wonder how we
can get you to be more animated and move a little bit so that you're not
stoic."  One newspaper article recently described me as being "statuesque."
In fact, I might post that small blurb, because it is suggesting that the
reason for my way of being deals with blindness.

 

"Also, they brought along a friend, Jim Portillo, that played an intriguing
electric bass ukulele with strings made of polyurethane, which gave it a
resonance like rubber, very rich sound for such a small instrument.  Besides
perfect licks, he had a great classic, statue-like stance of a bluegrass
bassist, never wavering, and then later, it was revealed he was blind and
had only been playing a few weeks."

 

 

I once took a class on stage craft, and one of the things folks liked about
my image the most was my smile.  I am told that a lot lately.use the smile.
I do, but once I'm on stage, I get so focused on what I'm doing that I end
up forgetting or simply not doing these things that really are attractive to
a visual audience.  How do blind people get more into the visual aspects of
things?  Of course I'm enjoying what I'm doing.  There's no greater love for
me than to play music with my two best friends.

 

So, here are some questions now that you know my background.  Is a person's
natural movement or lack thereof affected by blindness in any way?  How do
totally blind people learn about movement, expression, etc without looking
forced or mechanical?  I have given up trying to dance because as a kid, I
was always told, "Oh, you look like a little robot, pretty mechanical."  How
does one differentiate between what may look like a blindism from natural
and free-flowing movement?  If my friend tells me to feel free to swing and
sway as I play, how do I do it without looking like a Ray Charles or Stevie
Wonder?  Are these valid concerns or things that can or should possibly be
overcome to some degree, and if so, how?  Maybe I'm either too
self-conscious or perhaps I'm not totally aware of what some of these "free
forms of movement and expressions" are?  I don't know.  I'm inclined to
believe that sighted people learn by watching and imitation.  In my case,
unless someone literally shows me what to do and puts my body through the
motions, my interpretations may be different from what they're asking me to
do.  And, I'm to the point now in what I do where I don't wish to look
foolish or stand out in the wrong way.  

 

The good thing about all of this is that I have a whole lot of other things
going for me.  I do well behind a microphone in that I'm a good MC and
public speaker.  I'm a good promoter and can get my message across to folks.
And, when I'm on stage, I deliver a good sounding performance.  

My friends have been great ones and very honest with me about things.  I now
know that I probably stand out a bit more by not doing anything or moving.
Interesting, huh?  Now, if I begin working on this, I also want to look
natural and not fake.  I don't want to look like I've memorized a formula
for movement, especially to various songs.  It's Folk music, right?  

 

I look forward to a good discussion that will hopefully challenge me to go
further and see what happens.

 

Jim

 

 

 

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