In Glennie’s “Hearing Essay”, written to correct the constant critical mischaracterizations as a deaf performer, she states: “Hearing is basically a specialized form of touch. Sound is simply vibrating air which the ear picks up and converts to electric signals, which are then interpreted by the brain. The sense of hearing is not only the sense that can do this, touch can do this too. If you are standing by the road and a large truck goes by, do you hear or feel the vibrations? The answer is both.”

This quote about whole-body listening from Glennie brought Jolley back to an early memory of a Korean culture festival where she was introduced to the traditional dance called samgomu (3 drum dance). This dance brought together both visual and auditory aspects in a way that allowed Jolley to anticipate the next sound made simply by the movements of the performer. Tiny Dancer mixes aspects of samgomu and Glennie’s embodied hearing to create a dance for the performer. “The performer is a percussionist and not a dancer; however, the ambition is to see her body as an element of the broader auditory experience.”- Jennifer Jolley