Dancing away preconceptions about ADHD

DW (English)

Getting your PhD is a huge accomplishment for anyone, but for those dealing ADHD it can be an even bigger challenge. Tumi, a South African theatre-maker, is dancing her way through her studies, work and life.

Transcript

00:00As a performer and director, Madumisang Mutisi challenges norms and stereotypes with her

00:07controversial dance and theatre performances.

00:15Like her groundbreaking piece, Seeing Red, on Periods in 2018.

00:21I do believe that certain regimes and certain ways of thinking need to be challenged and

00:27need to be disrupted.

00:29I also understand that there's a learning process in that, a learning that I can take

00:35from those spaces and a learning I can give to those spaces.

00:40And now she has set her sights on the next step.

00:44Dumi is about to become a doctor of dance and movement.

00:48But why is it so important for her to change dance?

00:51And make viewers and dancers confront their prejudices and preconceptions.

00:58I think I count myself very lucky to be able to do movement and physical theatre.

01:04Because I truly believe, and I'm still trying to articulate it, but I truly believe that

01:09the arts and theatre is able to do something that not many other disciplines or fields

01:15can do, in terms of bringing people together that are different.

01:20And to acknowledge difference, not to ignore it, not to say, you know, we're all the same.

01:25But rather to say, okay, we are different, different skin colours, different bodies,

01:30different abilities, but we can come together and make something meaningful.

01:35Dumi belongs to a small group of black South African women who make it to the academies

01:40at all.

01:41The challenges on the way are still too many.

01:43There's a lack of opportunities, money, support.

01:48But when there is also mental disposition, how do you manage that?

01:54I fell in love with theatre.

01:56I fell in love with performance.

01:58And I spoke to my parents about that.

02:00But they were supportive.

02:02They knew that I wasn't going to be like my brothers, who are very business-minded people,

02:07always scared me, very numbers people.

02:10But it's not just an area of interest that sets Dumi apart from her brothers.

02:15At 28 years old, she's diagnosed with ADHD, another major obstacle on the way to a PhD.

02:22How does that work?

02:23I have an advocate for being in the therapeutic process.

02:28And I have been in multiple therapeutic processes.

02:31But when I decided to get a PhD, I knew that I would need help.

02:36I'd been in therapy for a while.

02:38And we obviously talked about the PhD.

02:41And it was really, really hard for me.

02:45Being African, it's not normal to open up about your feelings or mental issues.

02:50Many families don't agree to seeing therapists.

02:53How did her family support her during her diagnosis?

02:56My parents and my family mean a lot to me.

02:59And they have made very many sacrifices so that I can pursue this.

03:04Because it is not a normal way about it.

03:06And they did.

03:07They supported me.

03:08And they support my siblings in the journey to pursue knowledge.

03:13They are learned people in their own way.

03:16They may not have degrees and all of that, but learning, curiosity, people have always

03:22been a focus for us as a family.

03:26And yeah, and I think they have been and continue to be incredibly supportive of my work and

03:32of me.

03:34So when she, in fact, just so recently, like a month or two ago, when she explained the

03:40ADHD, when she explained the medication, then so many things started making sense.

03:47How did she manage mentally, physically, and emotionally while juggling her job, studies,

03:53lecturing overseas, and her relationship with friends and family?

03:58I realized in my undergrad that I had a lot of anger.

04:03And it was during the time of protest action at universities.

04:08And so there was a lot that I became conscious of about my identity.

04:13And I knew that I had felt discrimination, I had felt prejudice in different spaces,

04:20but it became very, very visible to me during my undergrad years.

04:25And I needed an outlet for this anger.

04:27And my art became that.

04:29And then I got to teach, and there was a softness that came into my world.

04:36And for me, that was the healing.

04:38I think that part of it, you must feel the anger, and you must be allowed to express

04:41the anger.

04:43Because out of that, something beautiful can arise.

04:47And teaching is that for me.

04:48Dumi's main aim is to break prejudices.

04:51Because in post-apartheid South Africa, it should simply be possible for everyone to

04:56continue their education.

04:59It's not normal to struggle sometimes as much as we are struggling.

05:05And so to be okay to ask for help and support, but to be agentic about one's health, mental

05:15and otherwise, is important when you want to pursue something like a PhD.

05:22Find people who are your people that can support you through it.

05:27But do it.

05:28At the end of the day, do it.

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