This month Deaf Awareness Week runs from 4 to 10 May and for this reason we have chosen Mark Smith as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Mark is a freelance dancer, teacher, actor and choreographer who was born deaf and diagnosed as profoundly so when he was four. As a young child his mum took his sister to dance school and Mark would have to tag along. He watched the kids dancing and felt the vibration of the music at the same time. Mark used to copy them, dancing at the back of the class where his mother noticed and let him join properly. He was accepted into the Royal Ballet School’s Junior Associates when he was 10, and when he left school he went to London Studio Centre and trained for three years.

Mark didn’t have any deaf artists to look up to and grew up to believe that nothing could stop him. His mother encouraged him to follow his dream and never let his deafness hold him back.

As a dancer Mark was a performer with Firefly, LaRibot and the Aaron Williamson Dance Company and in 2010 Mark formed ‘Deaf Men Dancing’ an innovative and emerging all male dance company. It is a collaboration of male dancers/choreographers who, like Mark, are deaf. Together they have created a fusion of differing styles of dance with sign-language incorporated into the devising and choreography.

Mark has work on numerous productions and shows including the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics.

To find out more about Mark, Deaf Men Dancing and the rest of his work see his website at http://marksmithproduction.com/marksmith.html