Creating Hand Gestures to Make Dance Learning Accessible
Only one student attended today’s class for children with hearing difficulties, as the others were unwell. I gave her individual attention and revised Nattadavu 1, 2 and 3 from the previous class. Today, I began creating my own hand gestures for dance terms and positions such as aramandi (half-sitting), samam (standing) and muzhu mandi (full-sitting). These gestures were not already part of our teaching method; I developed and introduced them to make dance instructions more accessible for my these students. Instead of relying on spoken reminders, I showed the student each gesture and explained the position it represented. She understood the gestures and responded by moving into the corresponding positions. For the last 15 minutes, she joined the other children’s batch to practise the Adavus. I stood near her and gave visual cues as she tried to follow along and dance with the group.
