A Deaf Dance Student Takes A Leading Role

By Jason Rose

Lark Detweiler learned to read lips so well by the age of 2 that her parents didn’t know she’d gone deaf.

Even before a fever caused her to lose 50% of her hearing, Lark says she had always been comforted by the sounds of dancing.

“My mom was a dancer. When I was young, before I could walk, she had tap rehearsals for musicals, and she would let me sleep on the stage, and I would just go to sleep,” says Lark.

Lark’s mother says it was no tip-toeing around that allowed Lark to sleep through dance rehearsals.

“She slept, soundly on stage, while my dancers tapped their brains out. They were so loud. It was amazing. This was before she had lost her hearing. She was just comforted by the rhythms.”

Now at the age of 13, Lark is a nationally-recognized dancer, who last year placed 3rd in the Los Angeles Dance Magic National Competition for her solo in the Lyrical dance category, but according to Lark’s mother, Juliane, she’s had to work harder than most to get there.

“Her challenges are hearing the music and directions. On her best day, she will miss 30% of what is said. At school, she has a special set of hearing aids with an FM receiver. She carries a microphone and headset from class to class. This allows her to hear their voices but there is a whole range of sounds that she will never hear,” says Juliane.

That whole range of sounds includes nuances that other dancers rely on as cues, but Lark has had to find other methods of keeping with the music.

“I think the counts in my head” says Lark, and, “I’ve learned how to be right on, and if I am not right on, I ask the teacher, and they understand, because they get a lot of questions.  Sometimes if they don’t know I’m hearing impaired they will be quiet, and then I mention it to them and they understand.”

Those who Lark has come to rely on over the years for an extra bit of guidance are her fellow students and instructors.

“They help me hear what the choreographer is saying if I’m too far away to hear and lip-read, and sometimes that happens, so they always help,” says Lark.

When Lark does need that extra instruction or cue from a fellow dancer, it’s usually given with a smile, says Lark, though she says that may not be everyone’s experience.

“I would say don’t give up. Keep working hard. Just because you can’t hear doesn’t mean you can’t dance. You can rely on your mind to help you hear the music,” says Lark.

Since she first laced-up her dance shoes at the age of 3, Lark has been tapping and chasseing to the beat at Agoura Hills Dance and Performing Arts Center, where founder and instructor Betsy Melber has watched Lark grow.

“I see Lark as a very hard working, dedicated, passionate dancer, who feels dance from the inside out, and who, when you watch her dance, you can't help but feel moved by the wonderful way she expresses herself, as well as the music. She is truly feeling it,” says Melber.

Melber has fostered Lark’s growth as a dancer since the beginning, and is excited to see her dance a featured role in the original ballet production of Alice in Wonderland which she has staged annually for the last decade.

“They called my mom to bring me to the studio, and they brought me into the office and told me I got the part of Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, and that’s a really big solo part which normally would be given to a hired dancer.  I was really excited,” says Lark.

Lark will rehearse as many as 20 hours each week leading up to the day of the show, which will be performed twice in one day for as many as 800 people, and, though the featured roles have typically gone to paid, professional dancers, Lark is ready, says Melber.

“This year we feel she is ready to take this on. It is my dream to have her cast as Alice when she is ready, which is not far off at all.  She is passionate about Ballet; it is her greatest love right now.  This role of the Cheshire Cat will take tremendous strength and stamina, and hard work,” says Melber.

Lark’s dream is to dance and choreograph for a large dance company, and she knows the Alice in Wonderland role is the beginning of a new stage in her progression as a dancer, and though she is only 13, she is already thinking about where she will be after high school, and years beyond.

“I would probably be somewhere in New York trying to get into a dance company, and I’d like to choreograph dances for some companies and maybe become a kinesiologist to help dancers,” says Lark.

Before Lark moves on to the Big Apple, she will have to make it through the summer.

In what promises to be the most intensive training she has yet to undergo, Lark will be spending 3 weeks in a dorm on the campus of the University of California at Irvine studying 8 hours a day with professional ballet dancers from American Ballet Theater.

For all the hard work that Lark invests in her dancing, it hasn’t been at the expense of having fun with friends. 

“Sometimes we make movies together and I’m the zombie because that’s really fun,” says Lark.

And, yes, she does have ideas for a ballet about zombies.

“I can imagine everyone having scary zombie makeup and doing turns and falling out of it, intentionally. It would be really fun to see some biting going on.”

Until Lark’s vision for pirouetting ghouls comes to a stage near you, you can see her perform in  Agoura Hills Dance and Performing Arts Center’s original production of Alice in Wonderland on Sunday, June 23, at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Scherr Forum Theatre, as well as in a variety of tap, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop and ballet ensembles at the “Star” showcase Friday, June 28, at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.