At 15, Luca Patuelli landed himself in a hopeless situation when his skating days came to a stop. A leg operation — just one of 16 operations he went through to deal with a neuromuscular (神经肌肉的) condition made standing on skateboard painful. “Both my favorite activity and the way I got around were taken away,” says Patuelli, who grew up in Maryland. Then one day a friend took him to a break-dancing competition. “It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen,” says the now 35-year-old. “I ended up dropping my crutches (拐杖) and doing what I called super push-up” — with his hands planted, he raised his body and let his legs stay in midair. “The crowd went crazy. The cheering made me realize I didn’t have to dance like them; I only had to dance like me.”
In 2004, Patuelli started making waves in many international competitions, showing his talents (天赋) in France, Canada (he now lives in Montreal), and California; he also created moves for music videos and even landed a Cirque du Soleil audition (试演). Along the way, Patuelli also known as Lazylegz, met differently-abled dancers and came up with an idea: “Create an all-star team to compete, perform (表演), and spread message about what we can do.”
In 2007, he formed. ILL-Abilities, a global group of dancers. Current members include Redouan “Redo” AitChitt from the Netherlands, born without a right arm, and Samuel “Samuka” Lima from Brazil, whose right leg was cut after getting cancer.
In addition to wowing other breakers, Patuelli’s team (which has toured Mexico, Poland, Rwanda, and beyond) performs what he calls “motivational entertainment” — a mix of dancing, discussions, and teaching — for everyone from elementary schoolers to old people. Patuelli says, “We get people moving and thinking about how to make society more accessible. I think of us as a group of superheroes with different powers—the X-Men of dance!”
【小题1】What did Patuelli think of the break-dancing competition his friend took him to?| A．It brought his skating days to a stop. |
| B．It was an eye-opening experience. |
| C．It made him sad to some degree. |
| D．It really drove him crazy. |
| A．He paid his attention to local events. |
| B．He worked himself way too hard. |
| C．He was quite a high-achiever. |
| D．He had ups and downs. |
| A．The members have cancer. |
| B．The members have to pass an audition. |
| C．The members have physical disabilities. |
| D．The members are from disadvantaged countries. |
| A．They raise money to help old people. |
| B．They try to take in some new group members. |
| C．They discuss different superheroes with people. |
| D．They give instructions on how to do dance moves. |
