Watch Marlee Matlin Dance To Raves Despite Profound Deafness

This week "Dancing with the Stars" premiered to huge numbers and brought out a whole new cast of stars. One of the most touted stars, featured in many of ABC's ads, was Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin, who is profoundly deaf. Matlin won over the audience and the judges Tuesday night with her cha cha cha routine, using her partner to find the rhythm.

Watch:

Comments

[bloomingvegan]

Deaf people can feel the music. She used that, not just her partner to "find the beat". GO MARLEE!!!

[JJI]

Marlee Matlin: we finally have someone that can bring Clinton and Obama people together. She should chair the DNC.

[Harrier]

I could tell she was deaf. But she worked very hard. Amazing much you can lose when you cannot hear. It's also amazing when you try hard, how much you can accomplish. She can from nowhere and became an actress and is breaking so many barriers. Most of all, she is working hard and you can tell, truly enjoying and appreciating where she is. She is quite an inspiration-hats off to a classy person

[bbwlovely]

SHE is cute!

[Libsrule]

Good for her. I love the L Word, but somehow she makes a lousy lesbian. Nice to see the handicapped on the show.

[ScandalousCandice]

I admit that what she did was pretty cool. But really she just proves a lot of people stupid. If you can count in a pattern you can dance. Thats a lot of what it is. Rhythmic patterns counted out. Congrats to her but really we are all watching to see if she screws it up. Admit it. Most people only watched Heather Mills to see if her leg would fly off. And she did fall.

[Penetang]

I am no dancer, but I suspect it is more then that. You can count out rythm all you want, but with the excitement and without feedback to correct you, I suspect you can go astray. Hearing people can sync up with the music almost subconsciously, but Marlee had to feel for the vibrations and cue off her partner. I don't doubt that is harder to do, and takes more concentration.

As for watching for screw ups, honestly I was doing the opposite.

[ScandalousCandice]

You can feel patterns and tap them out. Of course dancing is more than that, but in its core and base it's a numbered pattern.

Especially swing dancing. I took swing and before you can add rhythm to it you got to start at the bottom and learn the patterns. It's a pulse that can be counted out. You do it before the music. And once you feel it you add the music and it just works.

[JamieFrevele]

I can hear just fine and I can't do that. Marlee Matlin has obviously tapped into something amazing that most of us will never know about. Simply amazing!

[AJTheReverb]

Awesome