In September, more than a thousand deaf people vibrated to the rhythm of the music of the LSF Sign’ô festival in Toulouse. They came from all over France to attend concerts, workshops and the highlight of the show, a thunderous party for the deaf
Par Florence Panoussian
Considered the “capital of the deaf“, Toulouse is one of the few cities in France to offer them a full bilingual education, university training in theater, bookstores and even a festival, Sign’ô, with its Deaf Party to dance late into the night …
Skam’s actors at the helm
“Cit is a very strong moment. We are finally in our sign language and it feels good!“, exults Juliette Van Tornhout, 28-year-old special education teacher. In a green sequined dress and trainers, the young woman dances in front of the stage, under the changing lights of the spotlights. The music makes the room vibrate. The audience cheers. – in silence, waving their hands up – to the performance of artists loved by the deaf, such as Presilia Kette and VinzSlam, who sign the rap of Eminem or Bigflo & Oli at a frantic pace. concert in Tournefeuille, a suburb of Toulouse, is hosted by Winona Guyon and Lucas Wild, actors of the series Shame on France (linked article below). This “party for the deaf“is the highlight of Sign’ô, the first of this visual arts festival, created in 2007 by the company ACT’S (Art, culture and theater in signs) and which is reborn after six years of suspension, due to lack of means and the crisis of Covid.
Shows, concerts, workshops
For an entire weekend, according to the organizers, more than a thousand people gathered from 16 to 18 September 2022. Under an avenue of plane trees in the heart of the city, artisan stalls, a stage that welcomes percussionists, comedians and conferences, shows in the surrounding theaters … there is all the atmosphere of a festival. Except for the din of the voices: around the tables the conversations proceed well, by signs, translated if necessary by volunteers who master this language, like about 300,000 people in France. “We are happy with this bathroom with all the deaf. With us associations are not enough, there is nothing in the theater. So we move when there are such events“, sign for theAFP Sophie Bottagisi, 37, came from Nice with her family and friends. Of her daughter of her 10-year-old Stella, fourth generation deaf, loved the “movements with the feet“, learned during a hip-hop workshop led by Agathe Grelaud. The dancer shows how to move the joints one by one, then gives the start of the sequences to the children, signing herself with a pat on the head.
Popular bilingual classes
Victoria Bubnova, 9, already knows the technique. The music “it goes through the body, like when you touch me, I feel the vibrations“explains the little girl, approached to classical music at the age of 3, then last year to hip-hop.”I like ! It’s like kids: we move, we take big steps.“Along with horse riding, swimming and painting, hip-hop is one of the activities offered to students at Jean-Jaurès, a bilingual sign language institute in Ramonville-Saint-Agne, another city on the border with Toulouse, where Victoria is educated “.We came here for the bilingual lessons“, Explains her mother Irina Pavlyuk, 36, a Russian yoga teacher who arrived in France fifteen years ago with her husband, a dancer.Toulouse is said to be the capital of the deaf because there are many things: education with a 100% bilingual flow up to baccalaureate, which does not exist anywhere else in France (…), associations, activities“, adds Marylène Charrière, president of ACT’s and of the organizing committee of Sign’ô.
A unifying event
There are other parties for the deaf, such as the Clin d’œil in Reims, but not in the south. “People came from Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon to meet here“, Greets the president, also director of the show eye and handOn France 5. The six shows organized in two halls of 200 and 400 seats are almost sold out. And at the end of Saturday evening, fever took hold of the Party of the Deaf, the dancers chained a long farandole around the room. “The welcome is in our language. We share the same culture, the same identity. When we meet, we can let go!“Laughs Marylène Charrière, determined to prepare the next Sign’ô for 2024.
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