Para dancers look to take on the world at Amstelveen 2025 Para Dance Sport International Competition
Overcoming all the odds, para dancers Kallie Adams and Jessica Holtzhousen are planning their adventure to the Amstelveen 2025 Para Dance Sport International Competition, but they need to overcome one more obstacle, the financial one.
When ballroom dancers Kallie Adams and Jessica Holtzhousen get onto the floor, their only aim is to dazzle their audience through their sheer talent. Though this talent has seen them grace many dance floors, its the Amstelveen 2025 Para Dance Sport International Competition floor they plan to take over next – but to get there they need your help.
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Dance has become so entwined with who Adams is, that if you really looked hard enough, you wouldn’t be able to separate dance from his DNA. His time on the dance floor spans over three decades, and he has waited 28 years to be eligible for his National Colours, having danced with 15 different abled body dance partners with no success. The opportunity to finally be able to represent his country is one he is extremely excited, humbled, and anxious for. “It cannot happen soon enough,” he said with great anticipation. The past 30 years have seen him gain not only the power to entertain but a strong sense of perseverance – especially when faced with disappointments.
The competition, which takes place in the Netherlands, on April 18 to 21, sees Holtzhousen have the chance to represent her country with great pride. While there, she hopes to create a space where disabled men and women, in wheelchair dancing, can interact with each other: “While educating able bodied people on how it is to have the will power to do what you dream to do, even if you have limitations, and break through boundaries,” she said. The young dancer was born with a number of disabilities, as a result of her biological mother being an alcoholic. Holtzhousen has caudal regression syndrome, which caused her to be a paraplegic, paralyzed from the waist down. She also has a cleft palate, which required several operations, and has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, all of which required her to spend far too much of her early years on the operating table.
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For her, the idea that she could inspire other people with disabilities, by having them see they can achieve their dreams, is an opportunity not wasted on her. The pair, who find freedom in the box step over being boxed in by their limitations, need sponsors to come forward, to help them fly towards their dreams and land victors.
The dancing duo would appreciate financial help from the community to represent the country.
Details: Karen Geerthsen, karengeerthsen1@gmail.com or 083-276 0413.
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