By Arev Melkonyan

Hayk Hobosyan is the winner of the first “Dance If You Can” competition broadcast by Shant TV in Armenia.

Hayk is also deaf.

“When I found out that Hayk couldn’t hear, I felt an emotion akin to death. But I pulled myself together and made a vow to do all in my power to see that Hayk became a fully integrated member of society. I told my boy that there were two worlds out there; one for those who could hear and the other for those who couldn’t,” says his mother, Marineh.

Hayk says that he didn’t understand what it meant not to hear as a child.

“But when I got older I felt that I was different from the rest. I asked myself ‘why can’t I hear?’ and ‘why me?’ Later on, I thought that I was just like everybody else and could do everything,” Hayk confesses.

Hayk’s father enrolled his son in a school for those with hearing impairments. Hayk says he was happy to get the chance to learn sign language and thus communicate with others.

But some of Hayk’s family don’t even know sign language. Luckily, the young man can read lips quite well.

Hayk enjoyed history and geography at school and once dreamt about becoming a doctor. But his first love was dance. Even at an early age, Hayk danced at family gatherings and wowed his parents and relatives with his skills.

Hayk’s first success as a dancer was when he won the Grand Prize at the 5^th Rap/Pop Dance Festival in Armenia. After that he participated in a variety of dance competitions, wining a number of awards in hip-hop and break dancing. He then joined up with “Ara’s Dance Show” group.

Anita Abgaryan, Hayk’s dancing partner, describes him as a sun that lights up any room he enters.

The “Dance If You Can” competition opened a new page in Hayk’s life.

“When I saw the TV commercials for the contest, I was glad to see that such an event was finally coming to Armenia. But I never thought about entering. It was my brother’s friend who convinced me,” Hayk says.

Lilit, Hayk’s sister, says that her brother wanted to see how the first competition was and that he would enter the second.

“Hayk waited till the very last day to submit his application,” Lilit says.

After several tryouts, Hayk made it to the top twenty dancers. She remembers that her brother had gotten tired after five or six gala performances and that he even fell during one of them.

“He was exhausted. At the last performance they had to do five dances. That’s when he fell and slightly injured himself.”

One the day when the winners were to be announced all the dancers waited nervously. But Hayk was composed. Lilit recalls Hayk telling her that he didn’t really care who won and that what was important was that he made it to the finals.

“When my name was announced as the winner, I didn’t understand what had happened. Everyone in the audience got up and started to clap. I turned to the show’s host and he pointed to me. It still hasn’t sunk in that I won the contest. I really can’t describe what I felt when the reporters encircled me and started to take my picture,” Hayk relates.

Now, Hayk conducts his own dance group, the H Dance Studio. It’s made up of boys and girls from ages 6 to 16.

15 year-old Diana, one of the students, confesses that she was a bit fearful for her first dance session.

“Luckily, everything went well. Hayk is a great teacher whose favourite words are ‘slowly, slowly’. When we have trouble executing a certain move, Hayk tells us that it is indeed possible.”

Lousineh, another dance group member, says she was sad to learn that Hayk was deaf, but later understood that what was most important was that Hayk is a great teacher and dancer.

“If one day I can feel the dance like Hayk, I will be very content. Hayk lives to dance.”

Hayk says that there are great dancers in Armenia, but sadly they don’t have the opportunity to perform overseas. If they did, Hayk believes that many have what it takes to become quite successful.

He dreams of one day owning his own dance studio where kids with hearing disabilities would also attend.

Arev Melkonyan is a fourth year student at Yerevan State University’s Faculty of Journalism

2nd, 3rd and 4th photos - Shant TV