How does music move you? A slight tap of the toe? A little to the left or to the right? Across the floor in a sweeping tango? How does it move you if you can’t hear the music at all?
Many of us often think of music as solely a sonic art form (and as a radio station we might be a little biased), and for a lot of us that is true, but not everyone. For some folks, the most famous perhaps being Beethoven, music had to become something beyond soundwaves striking our eardrums. Kassandra Wedel, a German hip-hop dancer who lost her hearing at age three, shares that connection to music.
In celebration of World Hearing Day on March 3, Wedel starred in a mesmerizing music video for the rousingly timeless first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. As Wedel dances expressively against the moody backdrop of deserted urban landscapes, her body becomes a living interpretation of the Beethoven masterwork, despite the fact that — like Beethoven himself — she cannot hear the music she is dancing to.
The cinematography alone warrants giving the Deutsche Grammophon-produced video a watch, but the passionate dancing of a woman in the throes of agony and joy, along with the Berlin Philharmonic’s legendary Herbert von Karajan-led recording will keep you entranced until the end.
