Michael DiMartino :: pop music’s ASL visionary
For a guy who claims to be socially awkward and experienced anxiety issues, Michael DiMartino’s popular and original YouTube videos would seem to prove otherwise.
About a year and a half ago, DiMartino decided to post a video where he rapped along with the Kanye West song, "Gold Digger." But he wasn’t rapping the way you’d expect... he was "signing" it, essentially creating a music video that deaf and hearing impaired people could relate to.
Soon enough, DiMartino would get more and more elaborate with his videos, signing, dancing, and charming his way through a variety of pop songs. And while he doesn’t consider himself a dancer, the boy knows how to move. And he also knows how to use his zero percent body fat to draw in the viewers. This is not to say that he is an arrogant showoff. On the contrary, what the humble and charming DiMartino is doing is opening up the music industry to an audience that is frequently ignored.
And the most interesting thing about this is that DiMartino is not deaf.
Discovering ASL
DiMartino became interested in signing after deciding to take American Sign Language (ASL) in college while studying acting. But what was at first just a language requirement, soon became a passion. Before long, he put his performing aspirations aside and dove headfirst into ASL, eventually becoming an interpreter for the deaf.
But his desire to perform was just as strong as his love of sign language. At age two, he had starred as baby Jesus and immediately fell in love with the "biz." But as he entered high school, a debilitating anxiety disorder put his dreams of stardom to a grinding halt. After two years of being placed in special classes to deal with what the therapists called "school-phobia," he was mainstreamed back into the general school population where he quickly joined the drama club and school choir. "Theatre and singing and performing is what diminished my phobias, and I kind of broke out from there," he explained. "It was just a... remarkable time."
Since then, he went on to star in various high school productions, did a fair amount of off-Broadway work, and even sang at Carnegie Hall. But the ASL work continued and become something he felt very strongly about. He admits that the dichotomy of his love for both performing and ASL is fascinating. "It’s like two passions. One is completely silent. And one is definitely not quiet at all. It’s attention, spotlights, and dancing."
Story continues on next page.
Watch Michael’s video of Womanizer.
