H.W.D.C.S /// Hands Workshops Deaf Children School

I will never forget the day I arrived at Gulfstream Elementary School in Miami and was attacked by pack of kids jumping with their hands up high and this sign in their hands. Their teacher clarified that it meant “I LOVE YOU” in American Sign Language but for me it was the best welcome ever, I thought Punk is not Dead!

While touring with Cirque du Soleil (KURIOS) in United States I had the chance to visit schools of deaf children and do workshops with the kits.

As a child, every time my parents couldn’t take me on tour, my deaf grand mother would take care of me. My grand father, who was also deaf, was the founder of the Catalan Federation of Deaf People (FESOCA) and from a very young age he tought us about the importance of hand language and the richness of deaf culture. Their teachings have been a source of inspiration and influenced my work as phisical actor and hand pupeteer. As a way to thank them and the deaf comunity for all their teachings I do this workshop in which I explain from my perspective the imprtance of hands and deaf language as a way of expression, and a source of knowledge and inteligence. Deaf people have the ability to see the world diferently, they are very creative phisically and amotionally. In the time we spent together I offered them a diferent vision than the one they would get from their parents or teachers, through games and stories, I tried to make them understand the richness of their culture and the incredible talent their diverse functionality have given them, a super power to comunicate: The hands. They where excited and participative and overall I think the experience made them feel empowered.

I’m very gratefull to Cirque du Soleil (and Jeff Lovary) for organizing this experiences.