By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

Johanna Rolon-Flores practices her dance steps in her room, on the back patio of her Kissimmee home and at school.

Sometimes she can hear the music and feel the beat as she glides left, twirls right and raises her hands to the sky. Other times, she must rely on counting the steps or feeling the vibrations of the music's beat; it all depends if her hearing aids are inserted.

Rolon-Flores, 17, is practicing for upcoming performances with The Dance Troupe, a performing arts group at Florida School of the Deaf and the Blind. The school, based in St. Augustine, is a public school for deaf, hard-of-hearing and visually-impaired students.

The Dance Troupe is comprised of mostly deaf and hard-of-hearing students who dance and use sign language to spell out the lyrics to popular tunes and jazzy 1950s numbers. They move to ABBA's “Dancing Queen” and sign the words for “Perfect that Way,” a song about a deaf girl written and sung by Julie Durden, the aunt of a student at the Jacksonville school.

The students receive school credit for participating and must meet stringent academic requirements to qualify for the group.

“My class isn't to create perfect dancers; it's to build self-esteem,” Lia Ferrante, who has taught the dance group since 2005, said. “Usually by the end, they've overcome their stage fright and are more comfortable in public speaking.”

Rolon-Flores started in the dance group in August when school started. She wanted to join because she is shy.

“In dance, I will open myself up and confront my shyness,” Rolon-Flores said. “I like the social aspect.”

She has noticed such a change in herself, she's considering joining the cheerleading squad.

Although she has experience dancing at home and at family functions, Rolon-Flores is versed in Latin dancing, such as salsa and reggaeton, not what she calls “American dancing,” such as the choreographed numbers she learns in the dance group.

“She's been asking me every day to do a Spanish (Latin) dance,” Ferrante said.

Rolon-Flores was born hearing-impaired. Her mother, Maria Flores-Rodriguez, received a measles vaccination while unaware she was pregnant. The immunization carries a risk to unborn children. Both Rolon-Flores and her younger sister, Jessica, 15, were affected because they were both conceived within a year of the vaccination.

“That's why we moved (from Puerto Rico) because I needed help with Johanna and Jessica,” Flores-Rodriguez said.

After a brief stint in Colorado, the family, which includes a third sister, Jamilet, 14, settled in Kissimmee. Jamilet attends Osceola High School, where she stays after school on Fridays to learn sign language so she can communicate with her sisters easier. She is not hearing-impaired.

Rolon-Flores, who will graduate in June, aspires to help other special-needs children. She plans to attend Valencia Community College then transfer to a university.

The Dance Troupe has been entertaining audiences in Florida and beyond for 30 years.