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One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and then again the same counting followed by a turn… People’s glances and applauding hands are below the stage. Irina is deaf, however, she dances feeling Latin American music with all her cells.

“When I dance I know that people are looking at me and think, this woman is deaf, something is wrong. While dancing this idea pushes me forward, it says that I can do it, that I am one of you, equal to you,” says the 16-year-old girl, using the sign language. “When I was little, I was teased in the streets, people were calling behind me – lal a, lal a, lal a [meaning she is dumb]… While dancing I remember all that, and kind of power pushes me forward; as if I start struggling against the society.”

Irina Soghomonyan is deaf from birth. She has a full command of the sign language, and she knows very little of the word speech. She studies at the Special School for Children with Hearing Disorders in Yerevan. Irina is from the first circle of the deaf, where they are usually more developed and unembarrassed.

“My parents are deaf. I was a very little child and I knew that I was deaf. I do not remember exactly how old I was then, but I remember that I did not hear. I remember that my mother did not allow me to speak with hands in the street, in mini buses, and she used to slap on my fingers and communicate to me, “People are looking at us, do not do that way,”” Irina recalls. “I decided to fight and break this difference, and I do it through dancing. I did not hear, but I had the courage to express my willingness to study dancing, I knew that I would dance.”
It is already six years that Irina dances at the ‘Castanet’ studio of Latin American dances.

“I made me dance. You cannot imagine what a dream it was for me – to dance like people without hearing problems do,” Irina confesses.
Her dance mistress Roza Hovhannisyan taught Irina to dance Samba, Rumba, and Jive.

“Irina dances solo, which is more difficult for deaf people. And if she had a hearing dancing partner, he would lead the dance, and only movements would be left for Irina. She is dedicated to dance selflessly, she is a hard worker, she understands very easily,” Hovhannisyan says.

During concerts Roza stands in the hall behind the audience and accompanies her with glance.

“I am tense when the hall is full, besides, I keep on counting, and I do everything without hearing. My glance is always at my dance mistress, standing in the hall behind the audience. Even if I do not count I can understand judging by her glance whether I dance correctly or not,” Irina says.

Dance was Irina’s victory. Dance makes her brave, self-confident, creates her as individuality.

“Now people look at me without compassion,” Irina says uttering words with difficulty.

She started learning a little of word language when she was 12. Irina makes efforts to tell what she wants to say in words.

“At that age I managed to defend me with the help of the vocabulary that I had gathered. I kept in my mind those people who had been mocking me for years, I had gathered words to tell them – the God will punish you. Do you remember that time, don’t you? I remember very well. Aren’t you ashamed?” Irina recalls.
When she has difficulties in word language she passes to the sign language.

“I am free when I use the sign language, the world is mine. And while speaking in word language I stop very often and think whether I speak correctly or not,” says Irina, spreading out her arms in the air.

She says in words, “Let them not call us deaf people, we have our mother tongue – the sign language, which helps us stand firmly on the ground, it raises our self-esteem. I want to tell the world that people who hear and those who do not are equal. They both can dance, sing. Let people who hear not be afraid of us and understand this interesting world.”

Irina says that she is planning to become a dance mistress in order to teach people with hearing problems how to dance. She dreams about having a computer; deaf people are without hands if they do not have computers, because they get information through computers. Currently she uses the Internet through her cell-phone as many deaf people do.

“I know that I am beautiful, that I have overcome many difficulties and moved forward, I also know that I am deaf, but it does not oppress me. We differ from people who can hear but at the same time we are one of them,” Irina confesses.