How a deaf dancer is inspiring a nation, and sweeping the floor with competitors on U.K.’s “Strictly Come Dancing”

London – A British dancer is making history as a deaf contestant on “Strictly Come Dancing”, the British version of “Dancing with the Stars”.

Rose Ayling-Ellis glides across the floor with the kind of grace you would expect from a finalist, hitting every beat with superhuman precision. But Rose can’t to listen the rhythm. The 27-year-old soap opera actress has been deaf since birth.

CBS correspondent Charlie D’Agata spoke to Ayling-Ellis and her dance partner, Giovanni Pernice, with the help of a British Sign Language Assistant, and asked how she could dance without listening. the music.

“Well, I just do a lot of counting in my head, and when you count and repeat and repeat and repeat, it just becomes a muscle memory,” he said.

“I can dance and I can count,” Ayling-Ellis said, “It’s just a different way of learning, a different way of teaching, and it’s different, it’s different!”

This different way means relying heavily on your dance partner’s directions. Penrice said her bodies are nearby, so she can follow him.

“I don’t feel the music,” said Ayling-Ellis, “I feel Giovani!”

And she never did. The couple is proving that they can keep up with the competition. They got the oldest perfect score in the history of the series.

Thanks to Ayling-Ellis followers, the British Sign Language website has seen a 3,000% increase in people enrolling in online courses.

Her movements have made her a role model for the deaf, including 7-year-old Tilly.

“So you see her dancing, you think,‘ maybe I can dance? ’D’Agata asked Tilly. “Even though you’re not like other people, who don’t have glasses or headphones, can you be like them?”

“Even though you have problems with yourself, you can still do the same things as them,” she replied.

There was a moment in the series when Ayling-Ellis reached out and invited the world into her own world, dancing for 15 seconds of perfect silence that resonated in the homes of Britain.

“I think it’s a powerful opportunity to show people my world,” Ayling-Ellis said. “I think that’s what’s so normal for me, it’s so normal, but for other people it’s like a great time to see what our world is like, but that’s what’s normal for me, if you have sense? “

It certainly makes sense to Tilly.

“You don’t have to do perfect things, just like other people do, but you can still try and try,” he said.

Ayling-Ellis and Pernice have reached the final, which airs on the BBC in the UK on 18 December. Bettors have them ready to win it all.