“There’s tension… feel the tension… then drop it! Then from there we embrace, then let it go… then we try it again. Again.”

Inside the rehearsal room, Antoine Hunter ’s instructions guide dancers as they sync beating hearts with stomping feet, sweat gliding over sinew while they tug at a prop — a thick, colorful rope. Outside the rehearsal room, his words are an allegory for life. For the deaf, finding community and harmony in an imperfect world is a constant pursuit.

Hunter’s Urban Jazz Dance Company, which he founded 18 years ago, brings these realities to the stage at the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival , a platform he launched in 2013 for deaf and hard-of-hearing artists. This year’s program, running Aug. 8–10 at the Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco, features ten

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