Meet Hands4Voices, the signing choir who recently appeared on a BBC1 show!

Eagle eyed viewers tuning into the BBC1 production ‘Musicals:The Greatest Show’  may have spotted some BSL users on their screen!

Recorded at the London Palladium, the show celebrated musical theatre and featured several West End stars performing a rendition of a musical favourite. Jac Yarrow performed the much loved song ‘Any Dream Will Do’ from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

Prior to the show going out, the BBC had sent a call out asking for members of the public to submit their own version of ‘Any Dream Will Do’  to be featured as part of a virtual choir alongside Jac Yarrow’s lead performance.

A friend forwarded me the information about this request for virtual choir entries and, on a whim, decided to send them my own version in BSL. Also submitting a BSL translation was Essex based sign choir, Hands4Voices. How fortunate it was, then, that we were both successful in our applications and were part of the sing-along on TV!

I was rather proud to see myself signing one of the final lines in the song, “give me my coloured coat!” yet I was even more pleased to see a whole screen full of signers appear on the next line.

I had wondered who these signers were when a member of the choir posted a message on my Facebook page. Carol Cook, who leads the choir, spoke to me to tell me more about their choir – Hands4Voices – and how they all felt appearing on television!

Hi Carol! Congratulations on being selected for the BBC’s virtual choir! Can you tell me more about your role in Hands4Voices?

I am the choir leader of Hands 4 Voices, which I set up in 2011. I set it up with 14 people as a short 6 week activity over the summer break. But we are still here 10 years later with 60 members!

At the time when we first set up, there were not many sign choirs around so we were relatively unique at the time. It has been great to see sign choirs grow in popularity so much over the last 10 years

How did you hear about the opportunity to sign for the BBC1 show? What inspired you all to apply?

One of my choir members sent me through the link and it sounded like a great thing to do. And when I mentioned it to all the choir members, they were excited to take part.

We are all very passionate about signed songs and thought this would be a great way to show people on a national level. But we never imagined we would be selected!

How did you rehearse for this? Are you enjoying Zoom rehearsals?

The song the BBC asked for – from the musical Joseph – was a song that we hadn’t performed before so I put it together one morning and then taught the choir that evening. Then we recorded it about 30 minutes after that. So everyone had very little rehearsal time but it was a very short deadline so we were determined to do it.

Zoom has been “OK” over lockdown. It is not the same as being in a rehearsal room together but it is better than not meeting at all. We are a huge group of friends so miss being together but so many members have said that the choir has helped their mental health enormously over lockdown. It has given them something to focus on every week and given everyone something to smile about. And I am so proud of everything they have achieved and the commitment they have shown to the choir, despite being on Zoom.

One lovely advantage of being on Zoom is that some of the members are able to bring their children along to the sessions – as part of home schooling it can include music, dancing and, of course, sign language!

How did you find out the choir had been selected? Was it exciting to watch on screen?

I hadn’t actually had any confirmation that we had been selected so it came as a huge and lovely surprise to all of us! I was actually on another Zoom meeting that evening so didn’t watch it live. But I knew something had happened when my phone started to continually vibrate as lots of messages were coming through to say we were on the TV.

We were all so so proud to have been selected. Everyone was screaming with excitement, especially as we had no idea we would actually be on there! And I received so many messages – it really was wonderful.

We had also been shown on Children In Need back in November 2020 (performing Happiness by McFly) so to be selected again for this was absolutely amazing. And totally unexpected.

Who were the members that were shown performing Any Dream Will Do?

There were about 35 of us that night who were filmed over Zoom, but it was over 2 screens. So the clip the BBC showed was of the second screen showing 25 of our members.

We have Deaf, partially deaf and hearing members, although the vast majority are hearing. Many of the members are parents of deaf children and most of the members are BSL students so have a range of BSL Level 1 to BSL Level 6.

I can imagine the last 12 months has been quite hard for the group. How has the pandemic directly affected the sign choir?

We have missed a whole year of being unable to perform at any charity events, schools or community events, including all our Christmas performances. But the thing which makes us feel so sad is that we have been unable to fundraise for our charity of the year. However, we are supporting the same charity this year so hope to be able to start raising some money as soon as lockdown is eased and we can start performing again.

What plans do you have next, is there anything on the horizon you can tell us about?

We are booked for many different events in 2021, but still do not know if we will be able to do so. It all depends on the pandemic and what the Government allows. But apart from that, we just want to continue what we do – showing people the beauty of signed songs which also then raises the awareness of sign language.

Whatever happens, the Coronavirus will not stop us from doing what we love – whether it is over Zoom or in a room together! We are just a local sign choir who love what we do and never really seek to gain too much attention – so just a short 6 second clip on the television was absolutely wonderful! A real highlight of what has been a very difficult year for everyone.

 

You can find out more about Hands4Voices here.
You can see the episode of Musicals: The Greatest Show here.