[nabs-l] Can a person's movement be affected by blindness?

[Ashley Bramlett]

Wow, this message came through several times.
Ignasi, you must have hit reply several times!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ignasi Cambra" <ignasicambra at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2010 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Can a person's movement be affected by blindness?


> Interesting topic indeed. In my opinion, it is way harder to learn facial 
> expressions than to simply feel stuff. In other words, I can see myself 
> being absolutely terrible at memorizing what facial expression to use for 
> what. I can see how this would be very useful for an opera singer though, 
> or for anyone that needs to act for any reason. A few years ago when I 
> played as a soloist with an orchestra for the first time, I basically 
> wasn't sure how to interact with the conductor. In the end I found out 
> that the more comfortable I was on stage, the easier it was for him to 
> follow me just because I was more relaxed and I naturally did more 
> movements and gestures that he could understand. In this case, though, 
> breathing is really important. A pianist generally breathes before an 
> entrance, just like any other musician. And if one exaggerates this kind 
> of things a little bit, it becomes fairly easy for people to follow. Only 
> one time I had to memorize all the entrances and try to give them properly 
> to different people because it was a piece for 4 pianos, orchestra and 
> percussion, which is a little more complex.
> I don't know, for me these things really became pretty natural once I 
> started performing regularly. When I was around 12 or 13 I heard many 
> people telling me that I sounded great, but that my face and body in 
> general looked very statue-like. And the whole problem slowly went away I 
> guess. Of course my situation is different from many others just because I 
> don't have to deal with dancing, which I guess can be really hard. The 
> only time i had to do something with dancers it was because I accepted to 
> substitute a friend accompanying for the ballet department. I basically 
> don't know anything at all about ballet, and for the first 30 minutes I 
> think I was playing stuff waaaay too fast. After a while I got used to it 
> though. I tried to listen to everyone's movements and I could kind of tell 
> how fast they were going. Luckily it was only a couple of rehearsals...
>
> Ignasi
> On Sep 17, 2010, at 1:13 PM, Jim wrote:
>
>> 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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