Want to Breakdance like Dergin?

Fans have been writing to ask how they might learn to breakdance on crutches. Dergin was gracious enough to provide the following advice and exercise video for those who want to learn his art.

Dergin's Advice

Dancing on crutches is a type of acrobatics where the body and the muscles are constantly under stress. In the case of a handicap of the legs where one is restricted to a large degree in the lower body area, it takes too much time and effort to drop to the ground. Because crutch dancing is very dynamic and requires a lot of effort to control the flow of the movements, the arms must carry the majority of your body weight. I developed my own style to use with my legs. I wrap my stronger right leg around my weaker left leg. You will notice that I use this variant very often in my dance and also in acrobatic feats, if you pay close attention.

It is important to be able to support your body weight with your hands and maintain your balance when you move. The arms become a replacement for the half-functioning legs; the dancer must keep this in mind. Therefore the thing that you absolutely must learn is to support yourself in a perfect handstand. You must be able to move easily on your hands like a healthy person does on his legs. The handstand helps you to familiarize yourself with the art of movement under tension.

Next, the dancer needs to have suitable crutches for their body weight. In my dance, I use forearm crutches that were specially made for me by Cirque du Soleil. From a distance, my crutches do not appear any different from the crutches you encounter in everyday life. But the forearm crutches I use have an upper part built of carbon fiber and a lower part of titanium. These materials together make the perfect crutch for dancing easily and steadily. I also make sure that the rubber endcaps are lightweight and made of a rubber material that is not slippery. Without such precautions, they can make the experience of dancing on many surfaces very difficult at times. For example a parquet floor, which can sometimes have wax on it, can lead in the end to a skiing party! I also check how soft or hard the rubber endcaps are. To get a good result these criteria must be noted and adapted according to the preferences of the dancer.

If you have the right crutches, the next step is to learn to run on the crutches in each direction without putting your feet on the ground (I call this step the STIX-walk). It is very hard to stand there in one spot with the crutches, but you can easily correct your balance with minor adjustments of the right or left crutch. As I mentioned previously, I hold my legs together, wrapping the right stronger leg around the left, so that I can use the legs to help control my balance.

With much practice, you will get the feeling over time for adjusting your balance while on the crutches. One could compare this style to a wheelie or going on two wheels in a wheelchair. If you have tried it, you will know that to get more or less of a wheelie you need to keep your body weight in the wheelchair in balance with the raised front wheels. This is the same when you stand on crutches. To achieve a clean rhythm in the STIX-walk, I use a metronome to match the tapping of my crutches. The tic-tock style is also one of the most important practices that you will need to master in order to conserve your energy and later to give your acrobatics a clean dance feeling. You will also find that, if you work with rhythm, your movements with crutches will look more agile on the stage. In the end your movements will appear extremely fluid and graceful and will make your performance appear all the more extraordinary and special to your audience.