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

Mon Sep 20 03:11:38 UTC 2010

Oh! I'm sorry! It shows up as sent only once in here... So I don't think it got sent many times! I wonder... In any case I'm sorry if it interrupted anyone...!

IC
On Sep 19, 2010, at 5:39 PM, Ashley Bramlett wrote:

> 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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