Friday, May 25, 2018

My introduction to LazyLegz

reposted from
http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/arts/no-excuses-no-limits-for-canadian-dance-ambassador-luca-lazylegz
Just met LazyLegz at the discussion group at
https://grandsballets.com/en/national-centre-for-dance-therapy/first-international-symposium-for-dance-and-well-being/
where he said
"When I dance I forget I have crutches"


No excuses, no limits for Canadian dance ambassador Luca 'Lazylegz' Patuelli

Montrealer Luca "Lazylegz" Patuelli is this year's Canadian dance ambassador for International Dance Day, April 29. He walks with crutches. He dances like a star.
"When I'm performing or teaching or speaking, I experience a constant adrenalin rush," Luca "Lazylegz" Patuelli explains. "I love what I do. But when I step away from the arena, the fatigue takes over." Here he is showing us some of his moves. PIERRE OBENDRAUF /MONTREAL GAZETTE
SHAREADJUSTCOMMENTPRINT
Luca “Lazylegz” Patuelli  is this year’s Canadian dance ambassador for International Dance Day, April 29.
The Montreal breakdancer, a.k.a. b-boy, was selected by the Canadian Dance Assembly, an arts organization which promotes and supports Canadian dance. Patuelli wrote a message and is featured in a video posted on the CDA website and has been invited to be keynote speaker at the CDA National Conference in Toronto in September.
“I was overwhelmed when they contacted me,” Patuelli said. “This year (the CDA) wanted to highlight inclusiveness and accessibility to dance. When I sat down to write my dance message, it just flowed.”
Patuelli talked to the Montreal Gazette about dance and life and challenges in the conference room of his office in the Belgo Building on Ste-Catherine St. W. while wife Melissa Emblin-Patuelli, a dancer and occupational therapist, worked on their Project RAD initiative in the adjacent office. Project RAD trains urban-dance teachers how to work with children with physical and intellectual challenges in the dance studio.
Dominating the office space is a black wall emblazoned with the graffiti-styled slogan No Excuses No Limits — words that define Patuelli’s strength of spirit and body.
Patuelli was born with a condition called arthrogyprosis, which limited muscle and joint growth in his legs. At 8, he was diagnosed with scoliosis, a condition which leads to curvature of the spine. He underwent 16 surgeries between the age of seven months and 17 – and walks with crutches.
Patuelli was also born a determined optimist, with the ability to light up a room with a smile and handshake. Born in Montreal and raised in Bethesda, Md., he learned to skateboard, swim, ski, dive and sail — adapting each sport to his abilities. A knee operation ended his skateboarding when he was 15, so a friend introduced him to dance. It was all good until his senior year at high school when he broke a leg during an urban-dance competition, a.k.a. “dance battle.” The dancing stopped.
At 18, Patuelli moved back to Montreal to study economics and then marketing at Concordia University. He’d left a supportive group of buddies back in Maryland and knew that the best way to forge another group of close friends was to start dancing again. That was 2002. He hasn’t stopped since.
Patuelli’s impressive upper-body strength and ability to manoeuvre with innovative grace, using his crutches as an extension of his arms, garnered him praise in the international dance community.
He co-directed and headlined the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver, made it to finals week on Season 3 of the now-defunct CTV dance competition So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and has competed in and judged dance battles all over the world.
As a sought-after motivational speaker he does, on average, one talk and dance demonstration a week at schools, conferences and universities. He talks about his life and Project RAD – and he talks about his dance company ILL-Abilities. ILL, or “sick,” in this context means “very cool.” All five dancers have physical disabilities.
ILL-Abilities was nominated for an Olivier Award for excellence in theatre in the U.K. in 2013. The company didn’t win, but the attention landed it a 22-city U.K. tour in 2014. Patuelli tells a great story about company members walking the red carpet. The cheering from the crowd was deafening. They were tickled at being recognized until he looked back and saw that the outpouring of public affection was directed at Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, walking right behind them.
The motivational speaking — which Patuelli can do in fluent French, English, Italian or Spanish — keeps him on the road a fair bit, but that will have to slow down at the end of this summer because the couple’s first baby, a girl, is due at the end of August.
Slowing down might not be such a bad thing. Performing has taken its toll. The dancer has chronic tendinitis in both elbows and his left shoulder and wrist. (He takes the full brunt of weight in his left arm when executing b-boy floor rotations.)
“When I’m performing or teaching or speaking, I experience a constant adrenalin rush,” Patuelli said. “I love what I do. But when I step away from the arena, the fatigue takes over.”
Patuelli and Emblin-Patuelli, both 30, are inseparable. They met in 2008 when Patuelli was asked to speak at McGill University and it was love at first sight.
“My heart was beating fast the minute he began to talk,” Emblin-Patuelli said. “And I hadn’t even seen him dance.”
She scrambled to come up with a question to ask him after the talk. He asked her out and the rest, as they say …
The two unwind in their loft in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve by cooking together and then collapsing on the couch to watch something on Netflix. Patuelli loves political intrigue, so they’ve been watching Season 3 of House of Cards.
The couple, along with teacher, dancer and choreographer Marie-Élaine Patenaude,  launched Project RAD in 2012 at the Rebelles et Vagabonds studio in Laval. They had five students.
Project RAD is now in five dance studios in Montreal, with a pilot project at one studio in Quebec City, has 18 certified teachers and 80 students.
“It’s about making dance inclusive and making dance studios physically accessible — like having bars installed in the bathrooms,” Patuelli said. “What impresses me is to see the change in the (Project RAD) dance students, how their confidence and levels of independence increases. They start to make friends. And because they are in a dance studio, they come in contact with professional dancers and those professional dancers, in turn, are inspired by what they see.”
Project RAD and ILL-Abilities caught the eye of talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and Patuelli was invited to perform on her syndicated talk show in December 2013. His performance brought the studio audience to its feet.
How nervous was he?
“On a scale of 1 to 10, I was a 50,” he said. “I didn’t sleep the night before. I told Ellen it was like Christmas and my birthday and final exams all wrapped up into one because I was excited, but I was also nervous — like for a final exam — because of the pressure to perform.”
Patuelli graduated with a marketing degree from Concordia’s John Molson School of Business in 2009. It took seven years to complete the degree because he was juggling his dance career with the academics. His professors graciously adjusted deadlines and exam schedules as best they could to accommodate his demanding touring itinerary which would sometimes involve his flying somewhere to perform then catching the red-eye special home only to head directly to class at university.
“I remember taking 36 airplanes in one month,” Patuelli said with a laugh.
Last summer Patuelli took on another challenge, training hard to participate in the I Can Je Peux walk for people with physical disabilities, held in the Old Port. He completed the 2.5 kilometres from the Clock Tower to the Montreal Science Centre without his crutches.
“I trained by using a lot of visualization techniques, standing without my crutches for as long as I could and learning how to take steps by lifting my knees,” he said.
International Dance Day was introduced in 1982 by the International Dance Council, a UNESCO NGO, to promote dance worldwide. Dozens of countries participate in the annual event by organizing public performances or promoting dance with the help of ambassadors like Patuelli.
The Regroupement québécois de la danse has organized a 10-day event with dozens of dance activities designed to give a wider public an idea about what the dance industry in Quebec is doing. Événement Québec Danse began April 24 and runs until May 3. For program details, visit quebecdanse.org.

Luca “Lazylegz” Patuelli’s message for International Dance Day:

“No matter what age, race, sex or ability one may have, everyone can dance. Dance is within all of us. Some choose to share it with others and some choose to keep it to themselves. Life is a dance whether we know it or not. We are constantly dancing with every movement we make, with every breath we take, and with every beat our hearts make, a rhythm is being created. It’s the slightest movements that make the greatest difference in a performance, just like in life it’s the little things that matter. Dance is the connection between you and the universe; while we are dancing we are developing ourselves based on the energy, the emotions, and the challenges we experience. It is up to us to determine how we want to communicate our dance to the world. Dance is the ultimate form of self-expression and it is the escape that always reminds us that everything is going to be OK. Dance challenges us to surpass our limitations by discovering strength within. So, live your life to the fullest and dance beautifully!”

No comments:

Post a Comment