That is what Emily told me at the Ruta Maya at the late night dance on Sunday night. I didn’t think much about it at first when Emily told me about it. But it turned out that letting me know about Jimmy was going to put a great finale to the weekend! It was a weekend full of surprises.
Let’s rewind all the way back to Friday night, you will have to read to the end to find out about Jimmy.
Surprise number 1: I arrived after a long, exhausting day of flying from Rochester, NY to Austin, TX. In any case, I entered the Friday evening main dance room. After dancing a couple of songs, I noticed a familiar face. It was Carrie, who had just came back from England and was zig-zagging her way around the USA on the way back to DC from California. She was trying to hit as many dances as she could in as many different locations possible. For those of you who don’t know it, Carrie knows ASL pretty well. I don’t remember for sure if she was an interpreter.
For some strange reason, Carrie wound up interpreting for me as someone was saying her name. I don’t recall why right now, but I think Carrie might have asked for her name, and was simply interpreting the exchange. Anyways, here is how the exchange went:
Carrie: Spells out Jeannie unintelligibly to me
Me: “What?”
Carrie: “Oops! Sorry…” then thinks a bit as she shifts gear “J-e-a-n-n-i-e”
Me: “Hmm…I think I realize you…”
Carrie: Nods to signal “yep”
Me: “Cassie?”
Carrie: “No, Carrie”
Me: “Oh, close! What happened?”
Carrie: “I’ve been in England for 2 years, still thinking in BSL”
Long story short, I couldn’t help but think “hey, Beth would have loved this!” British Sign Language uses a different signed alphabet — one that uses 2 hands, and needless to say, I’m lost if you spell something to me in BSL. I had fun talking about it, and finding out that she really had been using BSL for those 2 years she was in England!
Later that night, my host, Reed, introduced me to Emily, who could sign pretty well. I danced with her, and then kind of forgot about her until the next day.
Surprise number 2: it just happened that we decided to go to a fancy Austin restaurant on Oysters Landing. Guess what, Emily and the army of maybe 8-10 dancers were there too! So we added our 4 to them, and it made for a wonderful dinner party right in the middle of the restaurant. At that restaurant, I was surprised to discover that the politically correct police have decided to change the sign for the country “Mexico”, and that they sign ‘who’ and ‘little bit’ slightly different in the south.
Surprise number 3: Sunday night, after the evening dance (which was outside on a nice day for a change), Reed, Emily, and others organized to go to a restaurant that happened to be close to the Whole Foods world headquarters. Unfortunately, that restaurant was closed, so we went to another place, the Waterloo Ice instead. We would soon find out was the perfect outing for us 15 something hungry dancers to raid! The place was pretty much empty when we walked in, but they quickly chained together a long stream of tables for us. And it so happened that this place was having an open mic night that night. The band that they had playing was a mix of soul and pop/rock.
Guess what happens when you put over 10 lindy hoppers in a restaurant that is playing soul music? Oh, of course, a lindy bomb ensued, and we were up on our foot dancing to the band! I danced with maybe 5 followers that night while eating dinner, thinking “this is so perfect!” While eating dinner, I decided to ask some other leaders what followers they liked to dance with this weekend.
Quick aside, I did not ask “what is your favorite follower” — because generally speaking, I don’t like to think about favorites. What I was thinking was more along the lines of “who inspired you this weekend!” I also wanted to know if there was somebody I should ask that night. Shorty George saw fit to bring up Sarah’s name, along with a video of her dancing (so I knew who it was right away). Richard gave a resounding “yes, she is great!” I remarked “well, I tend not to ask the young followers like that for a dance”. Generally speaking, I tend to ask them only if I have gotten to know them through other avenues, or that they have seen me dance with another follower that I know they trust. In Rochester, that is one thing, but when traveling, I try to be conscious about making sure everyone is comfortable. Anyways, Richard encouraged me to ask her anyways.
Surprise number 4: So the main dance on Sunday evening, I asked Sarah, and was pleased to find that she was quite secure, cheerful young girl. Oh yes, she was an awesome follower, but the best part was at the end. As is customary, I always sign “thank you” at the end of the dance. When I did that with Sarah, I got a surprised reaction along with “you deaf?” Turned out that Sarah knew some sign!
Finale: At the late night at Ruta Maya, Emily told me “Have you met Jimmy”. She went on to say that there was a deaf guy named Jimmy outside the door and that I should go out and talk to him. At the time I was thinking “well, I guess I see enough deaf people, I don’t need to go meet every one I see.” About half hour later, I was talking to Sarah (in sign), and found out that she had learned her sign from a deaf teacher. I was like “wow, those are the best — it forces you to get comfortable with deaf people.” Indeed, she was, so I thought “hey, there is a deaf guy outside Ruta Maya, so why not we go meet him”. Let me explain: I teach sign sometimes. I tend to prefer when I teach somebody, that they have exposure to sign from several deaf people, not just me.
So we walked out the entrance, I saw 2 black men at the table smoking. I noticed something that looked similar to signs, but couldn’t make out any specific words. I signed “hello, you deaf?” He was kind of surprised to see yet another person signing to him from the dance party. I went on to tell him that I was deaf. We talked for a while, and what is really cool about Jimmy is he doesn’t sign ASL. He signed Gestuno, also known as International Sign Language. I have no idea how much of that Sarah was getting (I recall being impressed with how she was handling herself). I found the experience talking to somebody who signed Gestuno to be quite interesting. I, of course, adapted my sign a bit to try to match what I was seeing.
But, what I found really cool about Jimmy was that, it turned out that Jimmy could do a variety of dances too. He claimed to be a musician who can play variety of instruments. I don’t know if we can believe everything somebody on the street says, but at the moment I’d give him the benefit of the doubt. We talked about variety of different dances, I was saying I am a swing dancer. He said that he knew African dancing. Actually, he kind of proved it — I was impressed when I saw him move his body in ways that looked like raw African dancing. Really, and I have taken African dancing classes in the past, so I’d like to think that I would know it when I see it.
We went back inside, and I don’t know how Jimmy got in through the hand band checkpoint, but he followed us in around 5 minutes later. It was so cool discussing with Jimmy about how we, being deaf, can really feel the music in Ruta Maya. Ruta Maya is almost all smooth concrete, yet, you can REALLY feel the music all throughout the room. Ruta Maya was a perfect case point in that deaf people do not necessarily need to be able to feel the floor vibrate to pick up the music. It is entirely possible for a deaf person to pick up the music right from the air. For those of you who don’t know, if you stomp your feet on concrete, and have someone stand about a yard away, they are unlikely to be able to feel anything. Basically, if you have concrete floor, say goodbye to feeling ANY vibrations in the floor.
Jimmy did get to dance with a few followers, including Emily and Sarah. I don’t know what they think about his lead, though. But it sure made for a very interesting aspect of the weekend. From British Sign Language to ASL to Gestuno/International Sign Language!
Updated: I got confirmation from the event booker at Ruta Maya that Jimmy is indeed a dancer and musician. See the comment section