National Technical Institute for the Deaf

By Casey Carlsen, CITY Newspaper - Jan. 31, 2012

A set of large, rough-hewn wooden shapes splattered with white paint bestow an urban- playground-feel upon the stage at a recent rehearsal of the RIT/NTID Dance Company -- that is, the student dance group at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology. The dancers, some deaf, some hearing, and many on the in-between spectrum, are draped about the set, leaning against a giant square frame or perched atop a low rectangular one, waiting for their cue to begin moving, and start grooving.

Thomas Warfield, director of the RIT/NTID Dance Company, crosses the stage with wide running steps to switch on the music. As the soulful keyboard strains of Liz Story spill from the boombox, the dancers come to life.

Three young women step forward, circle their shoulders together showily and then ease their way tentatively through a free-standing wooden square, pausing in the middle to peer out cautiously, glancing from side to side as if to ensure that the coast was clear. This dance piece is called "Open Window," and conveys a strong sense of tentative beginnings, new opportunities. As the music soars, the mood onstage lifts to one of growing confidence. A male dancer leaps through a rectangular "window" and then reclines on the horizontal base, head propped carelessly on his hand.

After a few minutes, Warfield stops the action to work with a few dancers on leaping more aggressively through a rectangular frame. The dancers vary greatly in ability and body type, but they all seem happy to be involved. They have been rehearsing together at least two hours a day, five days a week, for months now. Their production, "Off the Wall," choreographed by Warfield, premieres February 9-12.

Warfield conceived the show in part as a means to expose the students to other art forms, taking them to the Memorial Art Gallery, where they photographed paintings, and to the Rochester Museum and Science Center, where they visited the 9/11 exhibit and took notes about the artifacts they saw. All that fed into the creation of the company's current production.

"What is the sign for ‘hesitation'?" Warfield asks aloud as he simultaneously signs the question to those clustered around him. Instantaneously, a flurry of hands are thrust outwards - palms flat, arms straight - while torsos and heads recoil as in fear.

"Right," says Warfield, repeating the sign with the liquid fluency of a dance movement.

His signing is impressive, but Warfield shrugs off compliments, saying he took a few crash courses when he first came to NTID back in 1998 and just picked up the rest along the way.

"It looks like you're afraid to go through the shape," he tells the dancers. "Less hesitation." And he demonstrates the move for them, his long legs clad in grey-blue tights scissoring powerfully through the doorway-shaped set piece. At 49, his bearing remains striking; even singular movements are imbued with an easy grace and rich theatricality.
Warfield has been director of dance at NTID and an assistant professor in the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies since 1998. He teaches dance, dance-related performance courses, and the original course "Identity in Social Sciences." He also chairs the RIT President's Commission for Pluralism and Inclusion.

Warfield is a singer, dancer, actor, model, choreographer, director, producer, educator, activist, and poet - he is the quintessential Renaissance man. He has performed in "La Boheme" at New York City's Metropolitan Opera House, and with the Joffrey Ballet. He has worked with directors Franco Zeffirelli and Spike Lee; composer John Adams; scientist Carl Sagan; and singers Placido Domingo and Beverly Sills -- to name but a handful of his accomplishments.

Warfield was born and raised in Rochester, the child of an activist minister mother and a singer/conductor/musician father. By sixth grade the young Warfield had written his first play; at 12, he performed with the Opera Company Children's Chorus in Rochester. At 17 he was in New York City living the charmed life of an American Ballet Theatre student. But when Warfield slipped on a piece of paper in the locker room and fell, severely injuring upper thigh muscles, he was forced to forfeit his place in the ranks of rising dancers.

He managed to stay on in the city, pursuing other artistic avenues, until he started over again at 22 by enrolling in the dance program at SUNY Purchase.

After graduating with his BFA in dance performance, Warfield joined the Dragon Dance Company of Macao. This global experience provided the incentive for Warfield to found PeaceArt International, a locally based global outreach not-for-profit organization using the arts and the creative process to foster world peace.

Sitting in the darkened theater on a Saturday morning, I am given a crash course in deaf culture. Or, perhaps, a sub-culture made up of the deaf, hearing, and partially hearing students at NTID.

It is difficult to immediately determine which students can hear and which cannot. They all seem proficient in sign language. Only certain atonality in speech quality tips me off to some dancers' deafness. There also seems to be more of a physical component to communication between this group of mixed students. A tap on the shoulder to get someone's attention, an exaggerated come-hither motion to draw people closer. Then, too, there is the sharing of insiders' humor, the gently teasing banter that only close friends can safely employ.

This is all part of Warfield's plan, the wider picture in his dance program here at NTID.

"I am trying to establish a sense of building a community between the hearing and deaf communities," he has. "A lot of social integration happens on this stage. To me, that's as important as the dancing. It forces you to figure out within yourself how you interact with someone unlike yourself."

NTID is one of only two federally established colleges for the deaf in the United States (the other being Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.). Consequently, Rochester has more deaf people per capita than any other city in the country.

This is the first year that Antonietta Alfano, 23, a second-year transfer student majoring in nutritional management, has been with the company. Sixteen years of ballet training put her on the upper end of the experience spectrum within the company. Onstage, she is fastidious, marking the choreography again and again whenever there is a lull in the action. Her smiles and energy make it apparent that she enjoys performing. Alfano categorizes herself as hard of hearing. With her hearing aides in place she can hear normally, but she is also a capable signer.

"Dancing together gives us a chance to associate with each other through a shared interest," she says. "It's amazing how the deaf people feel the music, not hear it."

Warfield is convinced that deaf people have ways of connecting to music beyond simply feeling the rhythm. Based on his observations of deaf dancers responding to music over the years, he has some theories to offer up.

"I think there's much more to vibration of sound than merely the rhythm of the tempo," he says. "I think our senses pick up other cues. Energy. We connect to other sensations in the vibration. The nuances are communicated to us through the sensations of the vibration."

He says that multiple times over the years he has seen hearing dancers look to deaf dancers to regain count when they have lost the rhythm. The deaf dancers internalize the tempo.

Another member of the dance group, Mark Leonardo, 21, and fully hearing, was originally introduced to the dance company when he accompanied a friend to auditions. Warfield encouraged Leonardo to try out as well and the packaging-science major is now in his second year with the company.

"The stress builds up and I enjoy coming to dance every night and just having this time to myself. It's a cool down," Leonardo says.

Leonardo and Alfano will perform with the other members of NTID/RIT Dance Company when "Off the Wall" is performed next week. Specific show times are Thursday, February 9-Saturday, February 11, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, February 12, at 2 p.m. Reservations can be made at ntidtix@rit.edu.

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