Katie Redstar: My experience as a deaf blind performer at a Royal Event (BSL)

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to perform at a Royal event?  Well, I can give you an insight into what it’s like from the perspective of a performer, and I can tell you it is a hell of a lot of hard work!

From the minute my sign choir Unify were told that we were selected to be part of the Coronation Choir, I felt sheer excitement and happiness that we would be presenting the deaf British Sign Language using community.

It was a bonus that it was by doing something I love doing. The happiness I felt on finding out the good news was so unbelievable that even today I feel so happy as I look back and think about what we have accomplished.

Unify as a whole group collaborated on the translation of the chosen song for the Coronation Concert. The song was by Emile Sande, and called Brighter Days.

It was awesome to be part of the translation process, together we came up with an appropriate BSL translation and made sure we understood the context and the full content of the English lyrics.  To do this we needed to know the meaning of the song fully, so I did make sure I did a little research before our group Zoom meeting with Unify so I had lots of ideas.

Once we had the translation confirmed we literally had four weeks or a little less to rehearse, memorise the song lyrics, polish the BSL translation, and remember the sequence of what’s coming next.

Just one week before the concert we were unexpectedly asked to work on another song! This was because Take That wanted to perform Never Forget with the Coronation Choir on stage, and the choirs would be singing part of the song with them. This was really last minute but as professionals we did our best to translate what was thrown at us. This time it wasn’t too bad as it wasn’t the whole song just bits of it.

We then had to attend two lots of face to face rehearsals in London at Windsor Castle before the big day. It was amazing to see everyone come together with what they had learned and especially to see the other choirs signing part of the song with us too.

Finally it was the day of the concert, whoooo! Having had rehearsals beforehand I was confident with the songs, and with what I needed to do. I was also confident that Unify would do the deaf community proud as well as our founder Rebecca and celebrity mentors Rose Ayling-Ellis. To be honest we didn’t really need or use the celebrity mentor as we coped with everything well together.

I am a deaf blind performer and usually I am confident performing when I have done a route once and am able to remember it. This isn’t a problem unless someone changes things in my course or if someone puts an obstacle in my way. If they do that then accidents do happen unfortunately as I cannot always see them.

I am a very independent person and to be honest I hate asking for help because that’s just how I feel. But I have to admit I cannot see in the dark at all. I usually get by just by using my cane but at night time I really would benefit from additional assistance to  guide me around in a safe way. I normally would rather not do things at night in the dark than ask for help.

But part of the concert was taking place in the dark as it was an outdoor concert at night time and Take That were the final acts of the night, so the performance of Never Forget would definitely be when night had fallen. I didn’t want to ask for help but in this case I had to.

There was no way I could miss this opportunity. With no reason to sit out this song on the day, I had to bite the bullet and get out of my comfort zone and ask for guiding assistance backstage. To be honest that was a hard thing for me to do because it made me feel small, and as though I wasn’t independent.

A lot of my insecurities around accepting assistance stems from being bullied – with bullies saying ‘you’re not blind enough,’ ’you can manage during the day,’ ‘you don’t need help you are pretending’ and so on, so when I do actually need help I tend to avoid asking for it.

But by me accepting the help that I needed at the Coronation Concert, I was able to achieve something mega. I feel like I have done myself proud!

There’s a quote that says dream big and it’s achievable, but I’d say dream the impossible and break it down to baby steps to achieve the bigger dream. It really can come true.

I hope Unify as a sign song group will go to more places to do more sign songs and follow our ethics as a group. And I also hope that the deaf BSL community will accept that these things can be done, and see them as being achievable even if they are deaf or deaf-blind like me. I hope many more people enjoy our performances.

Katie currently lives in Leeds with her young son. She is passionate about campaigning for equality for both deaf and blind communities as she is deaf and visually impaired herself.