United Together

United Together is an American Sign Language Choir that is comprised of many types of students with varying knowledge of ASL, but they all have the common goal of bridging the gap between the Deaf and hearing communities. Sometimes people need a little encouragement to venture out to the edge of imagination and step into another person's shoes. After all, as Victor Hugo said, "What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears. The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind."

Sometimes it is hard to visualize what exactly a sign choir is without actually seeing a performance. The first thing that the choir does is gloss the song that we want to perform. ( "A Whole New World" is glossed for you to see.) That simply means that we translate the English words and concepts into ASL word order and meaning. Then we learn the signs with the music and figure out how we are going to stand and move during the song. Sometimes we will stand in simple formation for most of the song. Other times, we will act the song out. For example, we did "Monster Mash" one Halloween, and everyone picked a character in the song and signed their character's parts. The music is playing in the background during the performances, and we try to present the signs in such a way that a Deaf person could see the rhythm and flow of the music. If you get the chance, you might stop and see us perform, or if you are not from around here, stop and see someone in your area.