The Signs of Music: Hearing Perspectives in the Musical Practices of Deaf and Hearing Sign Dancers in the Netherlands

Abstract

The idea of music for d/Deaf people at first seems contradictory. However, this is only true for a musical practice in which the hearing sense is favored over other senses. There are multiple ways to practice music, which manifests in forms of tactile and visual music. The idea of sign dancing (making music accessible for a d/Deaf audience through sign language) is based on a form of visual music. Sign dancing gained popularity in the Netherlands, the evidence of which are the videos that went viral after sign dancers performed their interpretations of songs during the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019. Yet, only recently academics have taken up this subject, focusing solely on the American practice of sign dancing. In this thesis I will begin filling this academic gap by researching how Dutch Deaf and hearing sign dancers make music visual by adjusting signs according to musical features. By means of close-readings and the use of fundamentals of sign language linguistics, I will examine videos of both Deaf and hearing sign dancers. I will discuss the results within the field of Disability Studies, that views disability from a sociopolitical perspective. An analysis of the videos shows that both groups incorporate musical elements in the same way, conflicting with similar research on American sign dancers. I argue that this usage of musical elements causes for the hearing perspective to be the norm, resulting in the absence of a distinct Deaf musical culture.