I was diagnosed as profoundly deaf when I turned 14 months old. It was the late 80's and the ENT specialist told my mom, that I was the deafest person (according to my brainstem audiogram) to be diagnosed. According to doctors and experts, I would never talk. I had a hearing loss of 145 decibels, which means that a Boeing 747 could land behind me, and I would not notice!
My mother, Annemarie, resigned from her job as a music
teacher and enrolled in a course in Audiology, to reach a language to express
myself. Deaf people are immensely frustrated because they have no names for
their emotions. My mom used a mirror to show me my anger, happiness, fear, love, etc and taught me words for it these for the first of 4 years of my life, every
experience was a language lesson and not an even a picnic or a day at the beach
was only an outing, anymore. There were so many words! At this stage, I was
wearing Phonak Hearing Swiss which enabled me to hear vowels, but no consonants,
amplified to 140 decibels.
I started dancing at the age of 4. From the start, I loved it
to express my emotions with movement. Dancing became my way of communication. I
could not hear the music, but felt the vibrations and danced with my whole
heart and soul. Audiences
claimed that I was a very lyrical dancer who danced in a musical way by
counting. All eisteddfod and concert dances were divided in counts of 1 to 8
and I even won a Western Province medal for choreography!
I had a lifelong dream to become a world-class ballerina.
During my final year in a mainstream school in Cape Town, I auditioned by means a
DVD, recording my technique and performance of the prescribed exercise regime
of barre and floor work as well as solo ballet variations en pointe. I was
chosen out of 1500 dancers, to train at the famous Joffery Ballet School in New
York! This was a dream come true for me! After 3 months of Summer School
training, the directors of the Joffery Ballet School rewarded me with a Scholarship for a year. This is very rare for a non-American to get a
Scholarship. I danced on famous stages and worked with world-famous
choreographers. This was a wonderful opportunity!
I was chosen for a Bi-Lateral cochlear implant at age 17 that enabled me not only to hear my own voice, as well as the voices of my family and friends, and language for the first time, but most important to bring music and metrum to me. Sound travels from the ear shell via the cochlea to the brain, and with years of language drill, all the avenues to hearing entire in my brain was opened. Every sound from the flashing of the toilet, to the ticking of the alarm clock, was amazing. I started crying when I heard my own voice for the first time.
I stand with one foot in the hearing world and one foot in
the deaf world. I know THE SILENCE of a deaf person. I understand the
fear and frustration and I want to build a bridge between the deaf and hearing
communities. I want to be an inspiration and an example to the Youth of South
Africa. It was hard for me to be heard and understood in the hearing world and
I want to give hope to the deaf community of South Africa because we
have a disability, we try harder!
I entered for Miss Deaf South Africa 2019. My motive for entering
was to obtain a platform to be an ambassador for the South African Deaf
community. To raise funds to enable more deaf children to afford hearing aids
and cochlear implants. I have been crowned First Princess 3 times at the Miss Deaf South
Africa Pageant in 2012, 2013, and 2018. I was chosen to represent our beautiful country in London, UK at the Miss Deaf International Pageants
2014 and won Miss Best Talent Show. I won the title of Miss Deaf South Africa 2019/21, the longest title holder in history. I represented South Africa at Miss Deaf Universum in Bangkok, Thailand, December 2022 and made it to Top 15.
I studied Pilates at Katya Kinski Pilates Studio’s Pilates Academy of South Africa in Cape Town. I currently teaching Pilates for over 11 years - matwork, reformer, Cadillac, Pre-Post Natal and other equipments.
You can follow me on social media:
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What an inspiration you are to every South African! You are not only drop dead gorgeous but a wonderful example of achievement Well done and I take my hat off to your wonderful mother.
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