Episode 6: Feel the Beat - Making Music and Dance Deaf Accessible

Host Crystal Hand interviews Jari Majewski and Julia Faliano - co founders of the non-profit organization "Feel the Beat" - an organization dedicated to making music and dance fully accessible.  Taking inspiration from experience with teaching deaf children, as well as their own passion for music and theater, these women are forging a new path for Deaf students.    After years of trial and error and partnering with amazing organizations, they have come up with a floor technology that can make every tone and every sound accessible to Deaf and hard of hearing through touch.    With technology and a world class teaching staff they have made a haven for Deaf students (as well as special needs students) that they are hoping to duplicate and expand all across the county.   Jari and Julia tell us how they came up with idea, what it took to get it started and the unexpected therapy benefits both Deaf students and other special needs groups that they have discovered along the way.   

If you would like to learn more about Jari and Julia and their organization, Feel the Beat, how you can get involved or get a floor or your own, go to their website Feel The Beat Dance   

This podcast is produced and owned by Crystal Hand and not associated with any other company, business or government entity.  "The Other Side of Deaf" podcast and associated websites and social media pages represent the opinions of the host and her guests on the show and do not represent or reflect the opinion of any organization the participants are employed or associated with.  The content here is for information purposes only and should not be used for medical or legal purposes. 

Transcript

Crystal:  
Hello.   Welcome back to The Other Side of Deaf.   This is Crystal Hand your host.   Performing arts isn't something we typically think about when it comes to the deaf Community.   Some say music and dance is the language of our soul and for the Deaf Community it isn't any different.   This seems like a strange thing to say.   How can deaf people enjoy music if they can't hear it?   Well all sound, music included, is vibration and that can be seen and felt.   Despite the ability to enjoy these art forms, music and performing arts tends to be a battleground for full access to the Deaf community.   But with the right technology, all barriers can be dropped and thankfully there are many people out there that are working on solving accessibility problems.  Which brings me to today's guests. 

Two teachers of the deaf, one class of deaf students, and one non-accessible music class at school; that is where this story begins.   And it ends with the development of a non-profit, an Innovative technology, and a place where Deaf people can enjoy music to the fullest.  Today I have Julia and Jari, co-founders of the non-profit organization Feel the Beat, a music and dance studio specifically designed for deaf and hard of hearing children.   We have a lot to talk about today so let's get started. 

I have a ton of questions for you guys because you guys have a very unique relationship with the deaf community.  So, let's start with you Jari, so you and I when we met you talked about how when you were growing up you were a typical hearing person, but you were introduced to sign language because of your own communication needs, so tell us a little bit about that and how you got introduced to the deaf community. 

Jari: 
In sign language so very specifically, it was less regarding communication needs and more learning differences you know I was much more of a visual learner than I was an auditory learner.   So, in you know the typical run-of-the-mill classroom everything is being communicated and represented orally, vocally, audibly speaking at the students in the room and whatnot and in my early years it felt like everything was just going in one ear out the other and I could not retain anything.   And initially teachers, my parents, you know we thought there was something really significant, hearing being one of the things to get tested.   And it really just came down to figuring out what method of learning was best for me which ended up being visually.   And you know got some resources around that to facilitate how I could operate in you know typically developing classroom and be able to perceive that information that was coming our way and learn retain educate and you know ultimately succeed.   But through all of these kinds of avenues sign language was introduced to me as it clicked way more than a any other foreign language once that was introduced.   But also, being that it's such a visual language, I was much more receptive to it than learning through other means so that was like a really great introduction to assisting me with my own personal education.   But then of course, introducing me into to sign language to the Deaf community and you know the whole world in which I am very passionate about.
 
 Crystal: 
So how exactly does sign language help people like you with communication and auditory needs? So, my son has an auditory processing disorder in addition to his hearing loss so what he does hear, when he was little, he had a really hard time getting the words straight in his head.   And so, we always would say that they would go in in one ear and then they would get jumbled in his head and then when he would try to repeat something back it was like what did you just say?  That made no sense whatsoever.   And what we discovered was that it was just his brain that was not processing things correctly for him.   It was a reading thing, so when he learned how to read it was that visual portion of it that actually made it better.   So was sign language your you know kind of bridge there to make those connections.
 
Jari:
Yeah, kind of the way you're being describing how reading helped clarify for him, you could assume like that was the same kind of mechanism that had sign language assist me.   So, sign language, even to this day I'll have trouble finding words.  It almost feels like a memory issue for lack of a better word.  It's not.  I think it's sometimes like the words I'm trying to formulate just doesn't come as fast or as naturally as it does expressing with my hands.  And just kind of like that balance of being able to visually retain language a little better and faster and being able to express myself when I find my myself at a lack of of word.

Crystal:
Just amazing about sign language and Deaf culture is that even though as a hearing person you don't necessarily belong to the Deaf community as a member, their language has impacted your life in such a positive way by helping you learn and that's that's like such an amazing thing.   And I think a lot of hearing people they think that sign language is just for Deaf people but really, it's super useful in so many other aspects.   So, let's go to you Julia.   So, Julia, you're a teacher of the Deaf so tell us about how you got connected with the Deaf community?   What inspired you to get involved in in all of this?
 
 Julia: 
Yeah absolutely.   Um it's funny I've never heard Jari tell that story so fully and I like to draw a lot of parallels to my own story that I didn't know existed so learn something new every day.   When I was little, I said a lot of words wrong so I can remember you know telling my mom my nickel hurts my nickel hurts and she was like what?   And I would point to my ankle and so they eventually were like why is she learning the words wrong when we're all saying them the right way?  So, I landed myself in a sound booth for similar testing to Jari to rule out a hearing loss which I didn't have.   So that's uh one piece of my journey you know having gone a while thinking that hearing was a part of what was impacting my language learning.   And then later in life I just remember kind of like as a teenager and everyone's asking you what are you going to do after high school?   Or what's your plan?  And not feeling like I had a plan but becoming fascinated with sign language.   I think it started with seeing an interpreter at a theater performance when I was like 15. And so, knowing that I wanted to be a teacher all along I'd always been you know I worked at daycare centers and with Girl Scouts and I babysat so I knew I wanted to teach.  And then having found a fascination with sign language I thought well what about teaching kids who use sign language?  And so, I started volunteering at age 16 in a classroom for Deaf students and practicing my sign language and learning about deaf education which just illuminated this really clear path for me for what I wanted to do after high school and what I wanted to do in college.   And so as quickly as I could I obtained my general education teaching license and my deaf education license and got right back into the classroom doing what I knew I truly loved.
 
Crystal: 
Awesome.   So Jari, you mentioned before to me that you actually traveled with the deaf theater company.   So, tell us about that experience and what did you learn?   Because a lot of people don't think of deaf people in the arts especially Performing Arts.   So, let's talk about what you learned from that and what did you do for them?   Were you an interpreter?   What was that experience like?
 
 Jari: 
Yeah so, I actually I had been signing and in sign language classes since sixth seventh grade as my foreign language which was really cool and it's an accepted foreign language out east which is where I grew up.   Knowing I loved working with kids wanting to learn how to become an instructor that can differentiate education and all that kind of stuff, as well you know kind of like parallel to all of this I have been immersed in musical theater and dance and that whole world since a very young age and was extremely passionate about it.  And I kind of made it my mission to find both an undergraduate program and then later on professional opportunities to merge those two passions.   So, I got degrees in both musical theater, sign language communication disorders education.  Very early on was fortunate to find first an internship with the National Theater of the Deaf that that was kind of like my first profound and true experience merging those those passions.   Later on, was able to fully immerse myself as a deaf theater participant professional.  So what that looks like, not necessarily as an interpreter, like you are actually an actor playing a role.  In any kind of, whether it's a musical, straight , whatever kind of production.   Deaf West for instance have put on these incredible large deaf musicals for decades.   I think and you know some of their stuff has made it to Broadway.  And they've been able to integrate with really profound production companies and things like that.  And the way it looks, it's is called Shadow interpreting.  But you're not really interpreting.   It's really just like simultaneous expression.   So, you'll have one person like I would be singing a song, sometimes it would be my song like I was singing, like my character would be singing or speaking and then I'd have like my shadow who was signing.   Sometimes it looked the reverse.   Sometimes it was this character that was expressing their song through sign language, and I was their voice.   Sometimes I signed and spoke simultaneously. Sometimes I signed for another actor.   You know, it's a very cool beautiful overlay of how you're able to make the world of theater and music and performing arts accessible and inclusive for the deaf and hard of hearing community.   So, it was really really phenomenal and probably some of the most beautiful theater work I've ever been able to witness. 

Later on, like you were mentioning, I was able to tour nationally with the National Theater of the Deaf.  The productions look very similar to what I just described.  The back-end side of that was we all had to travel together.  We all had to room together.   Actually, immersing yourself in someone else's culture and language you'll obviously absorb it like a sponge very quickly.
 
Crystal: 
So, I am curious, these performances that you were a part of or even an audience is it large productions?  As far as not just the production itself but the large audience?   Because a lot of people think of like a Deaf Theater Company would only get deaf people to come.   So, what is that audience like? 

Jari:
Yeah in regard to working with like Deaf West or the National Theater of the Deaf the performances are not geared for one community.   Which is really cool.   And that is why they have both hearing and deaf and hard of hearing actors, both sign and spoken language to make it accessible inclusive and interesting for all.   When traveling, there were both opportunities for large theater performances just like any other touring company would come into a large city and set up shop for one to two weeks as any other Broadway Off-Broadway professional touring company would do.   And sometimes it was as simple as going into a school for the deaf or a college setting or doing a community workshop.   So, it really it spanned the whole gamut which was really cool.  But there's also shows like "Spring Awakening" that was on Broadway with Deaf West that was a full-blown Broadway performance.  Broadway audience, just like any other run-of-the-mill Broadway show just incorporating actors with with different needs and deaf and hard of hearing actors in that like immersive, shadow interpreting kind of manners.
 
Crystal: 
Julia so let's talk about you.   So, you and Jari met being teachers of the deaf together in a classroom.   But before that when you were doing all of your studying how was your experience when you immersed?   Because I know that when you become a teacher the deaf and an interpreter you have to kind of have this experience where you become immersed in Deaf culture in order to really learn the language.   So, what was that experience for you?
 
Julia:
 Yeah, I started learning sign language when I was like 15 or 16 at like Community College classes.   I feel like you you see sign language it looks so fascinating, it's really visually engaging it just draws you in and then as soon as you start learning with a deaf instructor, it like peels back this layer of the onion and there's this whole other piece, this whole other component of this beautiful culture that's completely different from my culture as a hearing person.   So, learning sign language from a deaf instructor is my favorite way to do it right.   And your deaf instructors are the type of professors who are going to tell you go get engaged in the community.   Colorado isn't necessarily known for having a giant Deaf Community but there is still a large community here of deaf people who are willing to engage with hearing people to help them learn American Sign Language and you know do it justice in the community.   So, a combination of community events and then a really wonderful opportunity they offer here in Colorado was called Silent weekend.   So, we go retreat to a cabin in the mountains and it's a voice-off weekend.  So, the only method of communication that's allowed is American Sign Language.  And it's two nights and three days.  And those are Deaf community members that I still see.  I teach with one of them today in Denver public schools.   So, it was not only an opportunity to immerse and learn about the culture and and be a part of it but it's it gave me the foundation for the community that I'm still a part of today. 
 
Crystal: 
So, let's switch gears and talk about your teaching experience.   So that's how you guys met.   So Jari you were a teacher and then Julia joined you in the classroom to teach at a school for the deaf is that correct?
 
Julia: 
 Uh it's an elementary school that has a center-based program.  So, like a magnet program for Deaf children.   So, there's mainstream classrooms as well as self-contained classrooms for the Deaf and Hard of hearing.
 
Crystal: 
 Okay great.   So that's actually how my daughter is doing her education.   So, she's in a regular neighborhood School that has a deaf classroom in it and then she goes her regular typical hearing classes with an interpreter and then she has some things that are just within the deaf classroom.   But let's talk about your experiences there.   So, what were the things that you saw specifically for arts programs?  Because I'm assuming that's kind of how you started with all of this.   So, did you really see that there was a lot of resistance with arts programs in that classroom and what kind of challenges did you have with all of that kind of stuff?
 
Julia:
 So, I think I'd been working in Jerry's classroom for a week or two um and we were and we were switching from going to like art classes like drawing and painting classes to go into music classes.   And so, my role as a paraprofessional was to bring our students to these classes and help them access the curriculum and participate and find joy while Jerry was lesson planning and meeting with teachers and parents.  So, I'm on my own and I take our our five kids down to music who all are deaf and hard of hearing but all of whom also have additional disabilities.  And one of our newer students was deafblind and had a lot of different motor delays and things like that.  And so, we walk into music class and we're ready to go and I just have this awful realization that the entire class is auditory based.   And I'm sitting there with five children who don't have the best auditory access and I just don't know how I'm going to get them from point A to point B and having an understanding of what's going on.   And so, I definitely remember coming back to the classroom to Jari and being like I failed.   And I don't know how to make this accessible and I don't know what to do to help.   And so, we sat down and had one of our our famous brainstorming sessions where we were like okay how are we gonna make music visual?   How are we going to make this part of class accessible?   And so, we problem solved.   We implemented some different accommodations.  But the surprising thing that happened was that our students started to accommodate and modify the curriculum themselves.  And so, a lot of our ideas ended up coming from things that our students were naturally doing.   In particular our deafblind student the day they brought out xylophones.   and so, it was her turn to play the xylophone.   great go up there with what are they called? Dowels I guess I don't know. 

Crystal:
 Mallets

Julia:
 Yes!   Um so she goes to play the xylophone and she puts one of them down and she places her hand under the the panels of the xylophone, and she plays with the other hand.   So, she's using just the tips of her fingers to touch the bottom sides of those planks to feel the vibrations of what she's playing.   So, we'd seen her do it on the side of a drum before, but this was the beginning of like oh she can do this with any instrument.   She has this ability to participate with these instruments that's completely natural even though she was born with no auditory nerves and has no conventional understanding of sound.  And so, seeing our students succeed independently in music we thought great, not only are they capable of participating but they love it.   They loved music and dance.   We incorporated it back into our own classrooms.  And so, we get near the end of the school year, we look for let's look for a list of programs that we can send to parents so that their kids can continue to engage in music and dance.   And that's when we realized there were none.   Nothing out there that we could promise to our parents that would be accessible to our students.   And so, this is where it all begins.
 
 Crystal:
Yeah so it's so interesting that you brought up the xylophones.  So my daughter actually just switched to play the xylophone.  She used to play the trumpet which is really strange because she actually could not hear it.  But yet she would memorize the vibrations of the sound.  And actually she did really well with that in marching band but when we got to concert band, we were in an enclosed room and so she couldn't differentiate between her vibrations from her instrument and somebody else's vibrations because they were sitting so close together.   So she decided she wanted to try something different because that's just who she is.  And so she tried the xylophone and she loves it.  Because it's completely tactile and so there is no her trying to find her pitch.  She can see everything.   She can feel everything and she loves it.   It's a great thing but I think that what's interesting about my daughter is that in our school district,  even though they have a deaf program, she is the first student to actually be in the high school band because so many other students,  are basically I don't want to say they're told but they're kind of like well you're deaf you're not going to do that.   And most of them don't actually think that they can unfortunately . And then it's somebody like Samantha or one of your students comes along and they show them that yes you can participate in this amazing art and amazing performance.  You just have to do it a little differently.   But you can still fully participate and so that's like such a cool thing to see.

  So let's talk about what you guys do now.   So you guys decided to start your own non-profit organization that specifically tailors to deaf and hard of hearing children as well as special needs children so that they can enjoy these arts and performances.   So you kind of touched on this earlier.   So the idea of this came from your music classes.   How did you start your dance studio to begin?
 
Jari: 
With to where Julia ended,  after seeing our students really engage and benefit from the different movement and tactile music elements we were able to provide and integrate in our classrooms,  and through seeing their enjoyment and interaction with all of that I just kind of looked at Julia one day I was like,  wouldn't it be really cool if we had like a whole floor that was made out of a speaker - like a speaker material.   To note,  that is not at all what we have today but that was like where our brains were going okay.   Well you can't dance on on top of a speaker nor does that really provide enough tactile input for providing like all realms and frequencies of music to kiddos who have no access to those different levels of sound.   But we just started both researching, brainstorming and experimenting.  We honestly ordered every tactile sound technology we could possibly find on the internet.   We watched lots of YouTube videos.   We learned how to splice wires you know I mean we really, we were just experimenting.  And we found one piece of technology that led us to another technology.  Had a conversation with someone which led us to another technology and it just kind of kept snowballing like that until ultimately, we found the incredible bone conduction transducers that we use today made by Clark synthesis.   And what we were really looking for that the bone conduction does that others don't is getting access to those different frequencies, those different tones, the different range of music instruments, vocals that you and I are you know able to hear and access on a daily basis with other types of technology such as like base shakers or haptic technology.  They're really able to hone in on those very low frequencies and sometimes very high frequencies.   Most of the time you know. like those heavy low frequencies are really what you feel when you crank up the base in your car that deaf individuals love.  But to us we're like we want to give them more.  We really want this to be accessible in a full gamut.  So, when we landed on these bone conduction transducers.   We were like yes this is it this is what we've been looking for and really took off from there. 
On a kind of parallel to this like technology equipment research and experimenting was actually trialing and developing creating this specialized curriculum.  And to begin with of course it took tons of research.  We talked with honestly with any and every deaf dancer, musician that was already in this field, as well as looking at different kinds of dance classes that meet different needs.   And everything from looking at working with occupational therapists and physical therapists and like okay how do we get the movement the rhythm, the integration, not only replicating what they see off of the movements the instructor is providing, but like get it into their bodies and feel that rhythm.  Create that rhythm within themselves.   It's kind of like all these different components and then trialing it out in you know a rented dance studio that we just got one or two hours a week wherever we were able to get.   And we learned like Julia said, we learned a lot from our students.  It was a lot of trial and error.   We really, we finally created and solidified a profound curriculum and we're always learning and adapting.
 
Crystal
So that's so cool so let's talk about the technology.   Because I know that my kids we have haptic vests for them.  So that was one of their Christmas presents one year is they got haptic vests.   So when they're playing video games they can feel everything and you're right the majority of it is like the bass sounds.  So you're saying that your floor isn't just bass sounds it's the entire sound spectrum.  So how do hearing people perceive?  That that's my next question.   Because if I would stand on it would I feel all of it?   Would I hear it and feel it?  Like how does that work?

Julia:
Yeah it's it's a super fair question.   Um so, bone conduction technology exists already.   It's not something that Jari and I invented.   It's something that we use in an Innovative and new way.  So if you think about first a person with a conductive hearing loss who might use a bone conduction hearing aid,  that hearing aid is doing for them what our floor does also.   So we want a hearing aid to give you optimal listening access.   We want it to make speech sounds clear and have it so that it's bridging where your hearing loss is.  So the same way that a bone conduction hearing aid can take speech sounds and environmental sounds and amplify them for a user that same technology exists in our floor.  And so it's taking sound waves from where they traditionally are in the air and it's making the mechanical sound waves.  So when you're standing, kneeling, sitting, laying.  etc on the floor your entire skeletal system is vibrating due to the conduction of the bone conduction transducers.  So while your skeletal system vibrates that vibration makes its way up to your skull and produces the same auditory feedback system that happens in your ear all day every day.  Traditionally it starts with an airwave,  it's going to beat on your eardrum and turn the signal mechanical.  We skip the airwave part.  We start with the mechanical part.  So your entire skeletal systems vibrates all the way up to those little tiny teeny bones in your ears to send then the neural waves to your brain that you are hearing sound.  So if a hearing person is to stand on that floor you're going to be hearing it almost to the point where it's hard to distinguish that it's different than the way you're hearing sound every day.   But in addition,  you're going to be able to feel a bunch of different things you can feel the difference of a male voice and a female voice on the floor so a hearing person is going to have to bridge that right I'm hearing this I know I'm hearing it but I'm also feeling it.   Whereas a deaf person with a conductive hearing loss is going to have the damaged part of their hearing system circumvented.   They're going to hear music the same way a bone conduction hearing aid would help them.  So some of our students who use bone conduction hearing aids take them off for the lesson because the floor is going to do the same thing that their hearing aid does deaf people.  With sensory neural hearing loss who who aren't going to have corrective sound from the floor then have that heightened sense of of tactile right.  So we can feel the vibrations as hearing people but it's just not the same experience the deaf person has on that floor where not only are they feeling that full spectrum but they can start to work on identifying like I know that's drums I know that's guitar just by the vibration alone.
 
 Crystal: 
That is so cool.  It's so amazing.   I wish that every dance studio had it.   I can only imagine, even with hearing students how that would just amplify and just make everyone's dance better or music class better.   To be able to feel it in your body that is just, that's just such a cool thing. 
 There's a lot of talk right, now at least in my profession about mindfulness and using sound therapy for our deaf and hard of hearing kids but also not just deaf and hard of hearing kids but for special needs kids as well.   So are there physical benefits, mental benefits?   Because I do know that I went to a seminar a few weeks ago and they were talking about how music can actually increase attention span and things like that.   So what have you found that your your students are benefiting in the therapy sense of this?
 
Julia:
 I'll start by saying that music makes such a profound impact on all of us and it's part of why we knew it was so important to start this non-profit.  Because the same benefits that music have for me,  a deaf person can have for music too as long as it's made accessible.  So the same way that a song can bring me joy or can remind me of a person or a memory or time or a place,  we can make those connections for deaf people too as long as we're making the sound accessible.   So all of the benefits that I reap from having music and dance and movement in my life, can now be benefits for a deaf person as well.  Because these classes and the community around them are made to be fully accessible for them,  it takes that piece of anxiety and that upward advocacy battle that deaf people fight every day out of the picture, so that they can focus on the music and dance and have the joy and have the expression and have all the same things that I that I have for music.   So we see not only this wide range of emotions that people have while they're experiencing music but we also see like an overall calming and soothing effect on our students.  Children, adults,  hearing, deaf - everyone gets on the floor and goes ah.   There is this like sense of like totally different input.   Kind of shakes up your system and helps to regulate your emotions and your nerves.   And we also just happen to have just such a wonderful base of instructors and volunteers who are welcoming and lovely and are experts in what they do.  And so the the overall environment in addition to the floor I think is a big piece of what benefits our students.   That they have a space where they're calm and they're safe and they're supported and everything's made for them first.   Designed for them.   Which nothing else I feel like in this world is usually designed for the disabled or for the deaf.   So um really giving them something that's theirs to own and have and be successful.   And so we see the growth and we see benefits that we didn't even know would have.  We see motor coordination growth.  We see memory growth.   We see growth and engagement.   A student who might not be interested in dance the first week comes the third week with their own choreography they made up.   And we just see these different successes and confidence and such cool things that these kids and adults can do when they're given the space to do it.   And so a lot of times we end up sitting back and just watching what can be created on the floor.
 
Jari:
 Thank you Jules.  That was beautifully said.  I just wanted to add in specifically because this is something I have more and more witnessed just recently the extent to which our flooring and technology impacts those on the autism spectrum or with sensory integration needs and individuals in that realm.  So I just did both an event specifically for a school for autism and like a week or two later did an Autism Festival.   Like we had a booth and we're connected to a live DJ with like silent disco headphones and all that kind of stuff.   And I physically, personally, firsthand witnessed countless times kids who were either overwhelmingly fidgety, having a behavioral Outburs,t a tantrum you know, over stimming being resistant to other opportunities to their parents to teachers and to whatever brought them to this moment,  finally took a step onto the floor.  When I tell you the the behaviors that went from like a hundred to zero in seconds you can't make that up.   It was the most fascinating thing to witness.   And yet it just had this full body experience and impact to a whole community that wasn't necessarily part of the initial plan.  So that's been really fascinating and beautiful to witness and be able to provide.   

Crystal: 
So is there a specific type of music that does that is it any music?   Or is it like classical? 
Jari:
Any music.

Crystal: 
It's just any music.   Interesting.
 
 Julia: 
We even we'll play with nature sounds on the floor right.   We'll do thunder and rain.  We'll do birds and running water.   We'll do, I like to personally in my classes use music that isolates an instrument.  So like acoustic guitar versus this is just drums and bass.   I think that that like stilling reaction that Jari talking about is one that we see often.   Where the initial reaction to the floor is just -what is happening?   What is this feeling?   And usually right after that feeling  just comes this huge grin.   So it's an initial like whoa - that just turns into this melt of this is cool.
 
Crystal: 
 That is so neat.   So you guys partner with other organizations and you do mobile events as well right?   So what does that look like?
 
 Jari:
So through our mobile programming we have been able to offer classes and programs in everything from a schools,  festivals,  fair situations specifically tailored to meet the community.  um we've put our floor into like breweries that offer live outdoor music and we've also been able to provide the mobile flooring at like large music festivals and just further extend that accessible aspect and that sound access experience and those are only to name a few.   And those opportunities just keep growing and expanding.   And our goal and our long-term mission is that sound accessible environments are really something in every studio and every state in every facility and every venue across the country and potentially Globe.   Because why not it should be.
 
 Crystal: 
Let's talk about that.  So you guys right now are in Eaglewood, Colorado as well as you just opened one in Lakewood.   In the Denver area you've got two specific places.  So if somebody outside of that area would want to be a part of this or have something similar and bring it to their area what does that look like?   Is that something that they would contact you and you guys would partner together or how do you work with people with that?

Jari: 
Yeah great question.   So that is something we have just really started to refine over the past year or two.   So the answer to that question,  there's two separate avenues anyone interested could take.   They could either opt to quote-unquote purchase the mobile flooring which then is like packageable, shippable, Plug and Play, ship it to wherever you take it out of the boxes and they all like interconnect to one another.   Or like setting up a a wedding dance floor, how they all just kind of like interlock, stay connected and as needed you can break them down and store them away for the the next use or it could stay as is as a permanent mobile floor.   That is the easiest option for other venues however more expensive.   The other option we've actually kind of packaged construction deal so to speak so it's almost like construction in a box.   We speak with whoever we're partnering with,  find out like the size of the room those kinds of specs and details.   We're able to configure the amount of flooring that would be needed to go into such a project either we can pre-build the flooring in like four by fours and then instill the technology so that it's all intertwined in a more consistent wiring setup which the mobile floor does not have.  You'd have to connect each floor plank one to one to one individually.  And then we have relationships with with different vendors and contractors around the country to assist with those kinds of opportunities.   Pending how big the project is if it was just a studio or a school in Pennsylvania we would be able to consult and ship these ready to go permanent installations and then either send out a sound guy or connect with someone that we partner with out there to do that last piece of the project.   If it was a much larger project our whole team would go out and deal with the nitty-gritty and work on all those kinds of things.   Just to give some perspective a full 800 to 1000 square foot space takes about three weeks to construct.   Being able to replicate this kind of business model in the way that we're able to in Colorado is really just like great practice on refining how we do this in cities nationwide.
 
Crystal:
I have to say as a fellow person who obviously is constantly advocating for Deaf and hard of hearing rights,  I love to see people coming up with technology and just different solutions to all of these issues.  Because I really feel like nowadays we have all of this amazing technology and there's no reason why we shouldn't have everything accessible.   When my family goes to every place that we go to,  we always have to think about accessibility.   Whether that's a museum or it's the movies or wherever and you know there's still things that are major problems. 
 
So we're going to wrap up.   Last question.  What is your advice for people like you who are seeing a problem and they want to fix it but they really don't know how or even somebody who might want to replicate what you did.  What is your advice for them? 
Julia: 
 I think that one thing that's special about us and that is one of the major reasons we are able to accomplish this is that we're teachers and teachers are really good at failing.   What we know about the teaching the teacher education program is that it just scratches the surface right.  So as soon as you get into your first classroom there's a lot of failing that's going to happen.   A lot of mistakes and a lot of on-the-spot problem solving.   So I think that us being teachers first and non-profit owners second gave us the willingness to just fall absolutely flat on her face.  And we both knew that we might work really hard to get a studio and we might open the doors and no one might come right.   And now here we are with people from all the way to Australia who are like bring us a floor tomorrow.   Um so I think that it's important to fail and I think it's a really important to ask for help.   We've connected with so many cool people and professionals who have given us what we need to be able to be successful.  So and there's a lot of people out there who are willing to volunteer their time and sit down and explain to you what's hard about owning a non-profit and getting started is a lot of that paperwork and a lot of that legal stuff and a lot of the applications but there's a lot of people out there who are willing to help.  And I think that being willing to fail and opening our doors is what we needed because we pretty instantly had people kids families in there who were not only in there and happy but who would then voice to us the impactt hat this has so it was an immediate Gap filling that was really satisfying to see.   That we thought there was a gap what if we provide this service and there's a lot of people out there who want it.  So I think that if you think like a teacher and you're willing to to fail and make mistakes that you are totally capable of starting a non-profit and providing a service for the community.
 
Jari:
Yeah I think everything Julia said.   Specifically I would press upon the partnerships.   Like not being.   afraid to ask for help and being very open to learn from individuals who have done it already.   I think the entire first year before we were official non-profit we said yes to everything.  Anything and everything we can get our hands on and opportunities we could we'd jump on top of because the truth was we had everything to learn.  Running a business, running a non-profit we have the whole world to learn.   So if we weren't open to both asking questions, receiving help,  learning from others we would have flopped within the first few months for sure.
 
Crystal: 
 Okay, well thank you so much for being here today and I'm so excited for everybody to hear about everything and hopefully people will hear this and want to reach out and make the world more accessible right.   So that's our goal for everything.  So thank you so much for being here.  
 If you'd like to learn more about Jari and Julia and their organization Feel The Beat, how you can get involved or get a floor of your own go to their website feelthebeat.dance I will include the link in the description of this episode for everyone to check out.   If you're just tuning in for the first time I encourage you to go back and listen to some of my previous episodes where we discuss an array of topics from all different perspectives.   Don't forget to like and subscribe to my channel and if you really like my podcast check out my Facebook and Instagram pages.  And of course share with your friends.   Also check out my YouTube channel where I have the first episode of this podcast interpreted into American Sign Language and we'll be continuing to add more as time goes on.   Stay tuned for future episodes coming out,  but until next time I'm signing off.