Disabled dancers take breakdancing to whole new level
HALIFAX -- Luca (Lazy Legz) Patuelli, a 23-year-old breakdancer with a rare muscle condition who makes his crutches part of his trademark routine, is preparing to start an international crew of disabled dancers.
The Montreal-based dancer, who is performing this week at the Halifax International Buskers Festival, plans to build on his growing international reputation by gathering a group of fellow dancers and documenting breakdancing battles across the globe.
"We have a guy from Chile who basically has no legs ... a guy from San Francisco with one leg and a guy from L.A. who is deaf in one ear and 50 per cent deaf in the other," Patuelli said Sunday after performing for a crowd of roughly 50 people on Halifax's waterfront.
Patuelli has arthrogrypsis, an extremely rare condition that affects muscle growth from his waist down.
He has gained international attention and even appeared on the TV program America's Got Talent for his unique style that incorporates crutches into his act. He balances on his crutches, lifting his body several feet above the ground as he dances, or he tosses the crutches to the ground and spins on his hands.
Patuelli has created a new crew of dancers with disabilities, called Ill-Abilities. He hopes the group will be sponsored, and he wants to produce a documentary that would feature different breakdancing battles and tell the dancers' stories in their home countries.
"I want it to be more like showing us having fun; obviously we'll have the inspirational part in it too," he said.
"If I want anyone to get any message out of this, it is if you adapt yourself in any situation no matter who you are and if you're creative, you can find a way to do it. It's just how bad you really want it."
In Halifax, Patuelli is performing several times throughout the week with his current six-man crew, Illmatic Styles, most of whom are students in Montreal.
But Illmatic Styles and Ill-Abilites aren't the only things the marketing student does in his time away from studying at Concordia in Montreal. Patuelli also tours the United States and Canada giving motivational speeches at universities, conferences, schools and hospitals.
In Halifax, Illmatic Styles went to a local hospital to speak with children, including 14-year-old Garrett George of Dartmouth.
George was at the hospital as part of a program for kids with behavioural problems and says meeting the dancers has helped him stay out of trouble.
"It helps me from not being able to do what I used to do, like drugs and running on the street and running away from home, but now I look forward to going dancing," he said.
"It's amazing, it's like they're all my older brothers."
-- Canadian Press
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