“Disability is just one part of our life” – meet the dancer breaking barriers on stage

Performance artist Lethabo Shai in a scene from Womxn in Me, recently staged at the Emakhaya Theatre. Photos: Ihsaan Haffejee

Lethabo Shai was two-years-old when bone cancer led to her leg being amputated. Today, she is a professional dancer.

Her latest production, Womxn in Me, is inspired by the women who raised her and helped her navigate her disability and the loss of her father. He was murdered when she was in grade seven.

Shai grew up in Ga-Moraba, Limpopo. She says she was bullied at school because of her disability, so her family decided to find a special needs school for her. She did not yet have access to a wheelchair, so family members carried her on their backs to school.

Later, she would become a keen wheelchair tennis player. Today, she uses crutches.

Womxn in Me is based on Shai’s childhood living with a disability and dealing with the loss of her father.

Her father’s murder was never investigated. Womxn in Me, recently staged at the Emakhaya theatre, refers to this traumatic incident through, for instance, gunshots sounds woven into the performance.

“It was emotionally difficult revisiting those memories,” said Shai of the process of creating the production, which received funding from the National Arts Council.

Lethabo Shai was only two years old when her leg was amputated after she was diagnosed with bone cancer.

Shai began dancing in high school. Her interest was sparked by the Disney film, High School Musical (2006). She continued dancing while studying psychology at the University of Johannesburg, and later joined the “Enabled through Dance” programme, run by the Moving into Dance company in Newtown.

Shai now works as a freelance artist and often collaborates with Jumping Kids, an organisation that gives child amputees access to prosthetics and opportunities in sport.

She hosts dance and movement workshops for children who prefer the arts over sports.

Performers Sanelisiwe Mkhaliphi and Mosie Mamaregane in a scene from Womxn in Me, alongside Lethabo Shai.

She is studying for an honours degree in drama therapy at the University of Witwatersrand and plans to run dance workshops at special needs schools.

Through her work, Shai wants to make the arts sector more accessible for disabled performers and to help break down stigma around disability.

“How can we make people understand that disability is just one part of our life? People with disabilities also experience relationships, breakups, grief, and the same realities everyone else faces,” says Shai.

Shai hopes to empower other artists with disabilities to share their stories through dance and performance.

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