ПРЕССА

'Wings' Lifts Nedoslov Dancers

By David Steinberg
Journal Staff Writer

The members of the dance company Nedoslov can't hear the music playing while they're on stage.

The dancers are deaf, but their deafness is hardly an obstacle to their artistry.

In fact, the music just may be irrelevant to the hearing-impaired dancers of the Russian dance company.

Many companies, whether their dancers have hearing disabilities, dance without music, said Marge Neset, director of Global DanceFest 2005.

Nedoslov's production of "Wings Are Given for All" on Tuesday, Nov. 1, is the final presentation of this year's Global DanceFest. The performance is at the James A. Little Theatre in Santa Fe.

"(Nedoslov's) dancers learn choreography as any dancer. It's about the timing, the movement that the choreographer has set on the company, but not to the music," Neset said.

Why have music accompany the performance if the dancers can't hear it?

Neset explained: "It's like costumes or color or backdrops. It's all part of the big picture for the audience. It's part of the piece."

The company will perform "Wings Are Given for All," which is based on Richard Bach's best-selling 1970 book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull."

The dance's story, like Bach's book, speaks to the artistic achievements of the company's members.

"The dance tells the story about how it is possible for everyone to achieve ... that we can all achieve our dreams," said Neset, who also is executive director of VSA North Fourth Arts Center.

Global DanceFest is a program of the center, which also serves people with a range of mental and physical disabilities. The center and the New Mexico School for the Deaf are co-sponsoring the Nedoslov performance.

The dance company originated at the Moscow-based State Specialized Institute of Arts, said Igor Vostrov, the dean of the theater department at the institute.

"In the summer of 2003 a group of hearing-impaired students graduated from the theatrical faculty. I was the artistic director of this course," Vostrov said in an e-mail to Neset.

"Wings Are Given for All," he wrote, was one of the student performances. It was so popular that it was performed in other cities and was the basis for the creation of the company.

Cindy Huff, an outreach specialist at the New Mexico School for the Deaf, said the performance offers an important cross-cultural experience.

"Not only is it an opportunity for the general public to see deaf performers but to see deaf performers from another country," Huff said.

Keri-Lynn McBride, the school's director of development and community relations, said Nedoslov dancers also will lead workshops for the school's students, exploring Russian sign language and contemporary dance.

In addition, McBride said, students who see "Wings Are Given for All" will participate in a videoconferencing dialogue with students at a Texas school for the deaf whose students also will see the performance.