Watching Antoine Hunter dance is a beautiful thing. A powerful, strong and elegant experience. He moves with the beat in an inspiring way. Yet he can’t hear it like us hearing people do, he is deaf!

He feels music and appreciates it in a way that the hearing probably never can. And he has learned to express that feeling in a fierce and amazing way.

Antoine has said he was made fun of as a young man. Being black and deaf doesn’t lend to a particularly easy childhood. But just one look at his body and his confidence shows that he rose above the whole thing, he is a beast, a lion, a real man of monumental stature, an advocate, an african-american and so much more.

Now he inspires, teaches and dances.

He setup and runs the the Bay Area’s annual gathering of Deaf dancers where he shows other deaf people that they can be comfortable in their skin and with who they are.

Watch and learn more below.