Meet the break dancer breaking down barriers

KARL Jacobs adopts a mindset of “if I can do it, so can you” when teaching kids the art of break dancing.

Mr Jacobs tragically lost both his parents at a young age and started losing his eyesight when he was a teenager.

A former tennis prodigy, he turned to break dancing as a creative outlet.

Officially, Mr Jacobs has been breakdancing for 14 years, travelling the world, competing and, of course, teaching.

“I think I’m good at teaching, I think it’s one thing I’m strong at,” he said. “I come from, pun intended, the viewpoint that I’ve had to deal with a lot.

“In my case, with both my parents dying, betrayals of friendships, relationships, plus going blind, I feel like it’s given me a lot of patience with things.”

He founded his break dance company SickStep Studios and will soon commence a partnership with SASS Bendigo, a provider of NDIS services.

Next week, SASS is launching an activity centre at Ironstone Hill, which will include breakdancing, yoga, gymnastics, music lessons and more, providing a much wider range of activities than is usually provided for children with disabilities.

Mr Jacobs said when SASS pitched the idea to him, he accepted straight away.

“We were in talks a while ago, because when I started SickSteps studios, my idea was I wanted to teach people that had disabilities,” he said.

“Because people with disabilities usually get pushed to the side, they have special needs sports for example… but in breakdancing, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a disability or not, they’re just judging you on your skill set.”

When it comes to children without disability, Mr Jacobs said the challenge comes from a lack of patience in children to give something a real go.

“Nowadays, in the last four years, kids expect instant gratification, that’s the struggle right now,” he said.

“It’s great that you can see me do a head spin or handstand one-handed, but if they can’t get it first go, they give up. For me in that aspect, I’m trying to slowly break that down.

“It’s kind of like hey look, I’ve been through this and I’m blind and you’re more abled than me, you can do this better than I can surely.”

The SASS Ironstone Hill Open Day is at 9am on Tuesday, 6 July and Mr Jacobs is also holding free workshops on Wednesday, 7 July and Friday, 9 July at East Bendigo Hall for all skill levels.

Check out SickStep on Facebook for more information.