Jan/Feb Updates! News, Photo's, and more!
Scritto da LazyLegz Tuesday 23 February 2010Wow! 2010 has already been an exciting and busy year. Not even two months are over and I feel that half of the year has passed by. Its amazing how quickly time flies and we all need to take a moment to enjoy what's goin' on in our lives. Sometimes it's tough with everything happening at the same time and moving so quickly we don't even realize what is currently going on.
So in January I had an average of 3 performances/speeches per week as well as rehearsing for the Danse Cite festival and rehearsing with ILLMASK for extremely big performance coming up in March (details confidential). I also am taking on 2 different teaching positions 3 times a week. I have been asked to return to Ecole Joseph Charbonneau (a Secondary French school specializing in Teens with disabilities or "ill-abilities") to continue teaching the J.C Stylez Crew as well as a new group of students every Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Wednesdays, I am at the MacKay Center an elementary school integrating ordinary children with "ill-abled" children where I have been asked to assist Anne Marie Ruschelin with the "Wizard of Oz" production for the whole school. We are putting an adaptive Hip-Hop twist to this performance. Both Schools Joseph Charbonneau and MacKay Center will have their year-end performances on the 1st week of May.
The first week of February started off with a trip to Belgium. It was my first time in Belgium and let me tell you...the waffles, fries, and beer(s) were amazing! Everything you may have every heard about Belgium food was true. I may have gained some weight off that trip :). The trip was anamazing experience I was invited to perform at the Handicom Horizon 2000 conference a conferenceraising awareness for people with disabilities. I got to meet some amazing people from across Europe (Spain, France,Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and Portugal) all with different "ill-abilities" and doing some amazing things. I met this one artist who has an amazing story and she painted apainting of me while I was performing live. It turned out really great and they raffled it off that evening I bought 50 Euros worth of Raffle tickets and I didn't even win the painting. Though, the winner of the painting was kind enough to offer me the painting as a gift as she felt bad I didn't win it. The painters name is Priscille Vincens.
While in Belgium I also got to experience my first European "Football" Match (Soccer). It was one of the craziest sporting events I have ever been too. There were riot cops, helicopters hovering over us, and crazy fans cheering and chanting religiously.
Upon returning from Belgium I was immediately to work on the "Ground up and Beyond" Film. A film about my 10-minute contemporary solo Choreographed by K8 "Lynx" Alsterlund. My brother Stephano Patuelli came in from New York City to help us create this film. My brother was allowed to bring his professional filming equipment from his work Tom Powel Imaging (T.PFacebook). We spent the whole week and several late nights working on this film at Studio 303. The reason we created this film is because I will be taking part of the Danse Cite festival from March 17-20 and 24-27. Unfortunately, I will not be performing live the 2nd week of the festival but we will be showing the film of "Ground up and Beyond" to replace my presence. We are very content with the final version of this film and we promise audience members for the second week of the festival that they will enjoy the film.
This past weekend was the FreshFormat Anniversary. Dancers from all across Canada came to support the event. It honestly was one of the best Bboy events I have ever been to in Canada. Great Job Fresh Format! I am also proud to share with you that off of 60 dancers from across Canada I made it through to the top 16 and lost in the quarter finals against Bboy Vicious. Check out our Battle (Lazylegz vs. Vicious) it was close but Vicious took it in the end.
This past Sunday ILLMASK had our first official photo shoot with Martin Banoon a very young up and coming and promising Montreal photographer. We were very impressed with his professionalism and creativity with the crew. Thanks Martin for the awesome photo shoot we are lookin' forward to working with you again!
So it's time for me to roll out. Keep on a look out for more info coming up in March. I will be performing in one of the biggest shows of my life sometime in mid-march. Hopefully I can give you guys more info about that but if not will share my experiences with you upon my return. Hope all is going well with you all and all the best. Remember enjoy the experiences that are currently happening in your life right now other wise you wont have the time to enjoy them later. Time flies so enjoy it!
Peace,
Luca "Lazylegz" Patuelli
Support Haiti
Scritto da LazyLegz Monday 18 January 2010Montreal has the 2nd largest Haitian Community. Many dancers and some close friends of mine are Haitian and have family members that were recently affected by the earthquake.
As you may have already heard, Haiti has recently been impacted by a severe earthquake causing catastrophic destruction across the capital city. This country is in severe need of help, and each sunrise and sunset only increases our fear of the unknown, our fear of the worse. At this point, every little thing counts and we need the collaboration and support of as many people as possible. There are quite a few organizations set up to provide support and giving to any one of these entities would be an immense help. Also, if anyone has any additional ways to provide aid, i.e. gathering medical/rescue supplies which could be sent to Haiti, this is also a critical need.
There are a lot of people who are safe, but there are also many who are injured and in dire need of medical attention or even things as simple as food and water. Others are in extreme desperation, trapped under rumble and in buildings and in need of immediate rescue. As a result, there’s a big race against the clock.
At the moment the best thing to do to donate to known organizations like:
Online:
• The Red Cross visiting the Red Cross Website.
• The Catholic relief services: http://crs.org/
• Doctors without borders: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
• Yele Haiti visiting the YELE HAITI EARTHQUAKE FUND
• Food for the Poor: http://www.foodforthepoor.org/
• World Vision: http://www.worldvision.org/
2009 Year End Review
Scritto da LazyLegz Wednesday 30 December 2009Year End Review
2009 has been an amazing year with many great experiences (Good and Bad) that I truly learned a great deal from. I am extremely thankful for all the support I have had from everyone (Past, Present, and Future) and all the adventures I have experienced so far. Below are some descriptions to some of my highlights of each month (Dec. to Jan 2009). I have also included links to help support some of the things I am talking about.
HAPPY NEW YEARS and ALL THE BEST
See you in 2010!
December
The highlight of the month was Tattooing my autograph on Joseph Monk a Tattoo artist and friend from Halifax, Nova Scotia. I met Joseph 2 years ago at the Halifax Buskers Festival where he Tattooed a picture of me on his leg now this time he allowed ME to tattoo him J it was Awesome!
Travels of the Month: Toronto, Barrie, Halifax, and New York City
November
The two main highlights of the month were the trip to Veracruz, Mexico where I performed in front of over 1,000 people and gave my speech in Spanish for the first time ever!...well as much as I could J. I had a translator (Marcela Bejarano Castañeda) by my side and she did all the technical words I couldn't say we worked as a great team and had an amazing performance together. At the end of the month part of ILL-Abilities (Tommy, Kujo, and myself) performing at the San Francisco HipHop Dance Festival, we were able to prepare a 6 minute theatrical show in less than two days. The experience was exhausting and stressful. Next time we will definitely come together sooner to prepare the show next time but we got amazing reviews and now ILL-Abilities has a theatrical show to share with the world.
Travels of the Month: Veracruz(Mexico), Toronto, and San Francisco
October
This month created the momentum for the rest of the year. I think it was probably the most travels in a row I have done in a while. Beginning of the month started in Thunder Bay, ON at the RecreationAble conference where I got to perform at the same event that Amy Roloff from the TLC TV show Little People Big World got to speak at the night before. The end of the month ended with a trip to Nagoya, Japan where ILL-Abilities/Renegades Crew (Lazylegz, Kid David, Kujo, Tommy Guns, and Wicket) competed in a major international battle and arrived in 2nd place next to T.I.P crew from Korea.
Travels of the Month: Thunder Bay, Washington D.C, Charlotte, San Francisco, and Nagoya(Japan)
September
This was supposed to be the recovering month from when I fell ill in August but I somehow I couldn't stay in bed. The highlight of the month was performing in La Ronge, Saskatchewan for the Gary Tinker Federation 20th year anniversary.
Travels of the Month: La Ronge, Saskatoon, and Toronto
August
A rollercoaster of a month but some amazing experiences both good and bad. The day after arriving from Europe I went straight to Halifax to meet up with my crew ILLMASK for the Busker's where at the end of the festival I beat my personal record and walked half a kilometer no crutches or leg braces. The bad part of this was I returned to Montreal with major fever and ended up in the hospital for Dehydration and Exhaustion.
Travels of the Month: Bordeaux(France), Barcelona(Spain), and Halifax
July
This was an exciting month where I moved in with my girlfriend Melissa a new but amazing experience. I got go to perform at Arthrogryposis Conference in Philadelphia, PA where I met some amazing people and learned a great deal about my disability.
Travels of the Month: Philadelphia, and Guelph
June
Graduation Month! I finally walked across the stage and picked up my diploma...I also did a freeze in between the walk J. It was another crazy month with lots of different types of performances including dancing on a float at the St. Jean Baptiste Parade. Highlight besides graduation was performing at the Atlantic Dance Festival in Moncton, NB.
Travels of the Month: Dundas, Toronto, Brantford, and Moncton
May
The highlight of the month was performing at Central Washington University and after the performance I met up with some friends that shaved my head and engraved Lazylegz on the back of my head. I also got to compete with Filthee Feet Crew at the Massive Monkees Anniversary event.
Travels of the Month: Toronto, Ellensburg, Seattle, and Cleveland
April
I finished all my exams and was waiting anxiously for my results. Highlight of the month performing for the Defi Sportif an event for children with disabilities (physical and intellectual) with Olympic and paralympic activities.
Travels of the Month: Toronto, and Orillia
March
A long awaited Breakdance Battle finally occurred (Kujo vs. Junior) in Marseilles, France. This has been a battle I have wanted to see from when I first started dancing because of the similar styles between all of us. In 2003 I even drove to Rochester, NY by myself to see this battle but it didn't end up happening so I ended up battling Kujo along with Piecez and Pete Nasty. I had to go to the Battle in France and the plan was to recruit Junior into the crew (ILL-Abilities) unfortunately he refused.
Travels of the Month: Toronto and Marsaille(France)
February
My first valenitines day with my new girlfriend Melissa, even if I don't believe in valentines day because everyday should be Valentines day we had a good one together. Highlight of the month was performing at the Empower Fundraiser with Tommy Guns we got to perform alongside A.S.S.I.D and Supreme Soul from America's Best Dance Crew.
Travels for the Month: San Francisco
January
A month to get back into shape from all the big holiday feasts I had with my family in Italy. I was rehearsing hard to get my solo "The Ground Up and Beyond" (Pictures) ready to perform for the Studio 303 vernisage. The solo has been choreographed by a great friend and amazing dancer B-Gril Lynx.
Travels for the Month: Ottawa
On my way to MEXICO!!!
Scritto da LazyLegz Thursday 05 November 2009Hey Guys,
Just wanted to check in and say Hello. The month of October has been a crazy busy month, but super productive and I had many great experiences from; Sharing a stage with Amy Roloff from "Little people big world" in Thunder bay, Reuniting with many of my high school friends from Bethesda, MD, eating southern cooking in North Carolina, to taking a 14hr flight to battle in Japan for 2 days. Its been extremely exciting and I can say in the onth of October I learned a lot from these experiences and I am extremely thankful. In Japan ILL-Abilities/Renegades crew arrived in 2nd place and lost to T.I.P crew from Korea. We all battled extremely well and were proud of our performance. I will put up some pics and videos once I get them from my friends. I actually lost my camera in a Taxi in Japan on the last...coming home from the after party...I guess I partied too hard haha :)
Anyways the Month of November isn't any less busy I have started teaching dance at Joseph Charbonneau a school for disabled children where I taught last year and have been asked to come back to teach 2 classes per week now. It's awesome and my students are gearing up for the big show at the end of the year.
Right now I am on my way to Veracruz, Mexico for the Encuentro Expressiones festival. It is an inclusion festival for people with disabilities. I will be giving my first ever motivational speech in Spanish. I will have a spanish translator with me just incase but I will do my best to pull it off in a new language :)
I will keep you updated on how that event goes. I gotta run my parents and Melissa and rushing me to go to the airport...We don't want to miss the flight :)
PEACE!
LazyLuca
John F Kennedy HS, Montreal (Sept. 25, 2009)
Scritto da LazyLegz Monday 28 September 2009I just wanted to quickly share an amazing experience I had at JFK HS last week. It was my first High School show of the season and it was probably one of the best shows in a long time. This school's energy and emotion matches up to Jean 23 in Dorval and CedarBrae in Toronto; two other schools that will stay in my memory for ever as some of my best performances and most fun.
JFK HS honored me at the end of the day by donating $450 to the charity of my choice under my name. It was a huge honor to have been given this opportunity and I have chosen to donate to UNITY Charity.
UNITY is run by a very close friend of mine Michael Prosserman also known as Bboy Piecez. UNITY goes to high schools around the Toronto area to perform for the students while spreading the message of Hip Hop away from Violence. They spend some time at each school teaching workshops on Breaking, Spoken Word, Graffiti, and DJing. Check out www.unitycharity.com for more information.
I told Piecez that I would only donate this money to him if he agrees to come to Montreal and perform at JFK as well as some other Schools in the Montreal area with the rest of the UNITY crew. He agreed and we will try organize them a tour sometime around May.
That is it for now....
Peace,
Luca "Lazylegz" Patuelli
St-Laurent