September-October 2001

Beam after an interview

by Timothy Worthylake 

Fred Beam, an avid dancer and actor, has become a star in the Deaf community. Beam was born near Atlanta, Georgia. He was hearing until he was three years old when he developed chicken pox and mumps at the same time. The illnesses left him deaf.

Beam in an outdoor performance

Beam on stage

Beam returned to school and continued in mainstream programs until his high school graduation. Then he entered the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Rochester, New York.

“I knew a little sign language from church,” he explained. “But when I entered NTID, I learned American Sign Language quickly.”

At NTID, Beam enjoyed playing sports. Then one day a dance professor told him to come to his dance class. The dance professor recognized Beam’s potential as a dancer because of his athletic build.

“Me dance? No way!” said Beam.

But the dance professor was persistent.

Finally Beam joined the class.

“No regrets,” said Beam, looking back.

In fact, he loved dancing.

When he left NTID and went to the Tampa Technical Institute in Florida, he still wanted to dance.

“‘Dance…dance… where?’ kept echoing in my mind,” he said.

Beam, far left, with the other Zappers

Beam graduated with a degree in electronic engineering and headed north. In Washington, D.C., he helped Irvine Stewart and Warren Snipe form an all-male dance group called the Wild Zappers.

“We wanted to give deaf male dancers an opportunity to dance together and support cultural and educational awareness through entertainment,” he said. “We envisioned working within the deaf and hearing communities.”

The Wild Zappers have performed around the world. They went to Japan, Australia, and the Virgin Islands. Beam makes his living through performing arts, producing, directing, dancing, developing choreography, acting, giving workshops, and teaching sign language classes.