Special Olympics: Auerbachers dance in Graz for Germany | Free press

Auerbach / Graz In mid-August, over 100 dancers with intellectual handicaps from over 15 nations are expected at the 1st Special Olympics World Dance Championships in Graz, Austria. Germany is represented exclusively by participants from the Auerbach dance studio 1-2-Step. Among other things, this has to do with the fact that studio boss Jörg Dünnebier is the official sports coordinator of the dance area at Special Olympics in Germany. “I’ve been giving dance lessons for people with disabilities for around 20 years,” says Dünnebier. Not many did that: “And that’s probably why I was chosen.” Dancing has been included as a brand new sport at the Special Olympics, incidentally in the area of ​​winter sports: “We’re still at the very beginning” In addition to a couple from Auerbach, a group from Saxony-Anhalt should actually compete, but they canceled due to Corona. The Vogtlanders then also took on this role.

The couple consists of the now well-known Daniel “Pauschi” Pausch, the son of Dünnebier’s partner, and Patricia Schramm – both have a handicap and are therefore referred to as “athletes”. In 2018, Pauschi and his (non-disabled) partner Alina Klöden competed as a guest couple at a national Austrian Special Olympics competition – and won silver. This time Pauschi and Patricia want to make it to the top with a complicated choreography of Cha-Cha-Cha and Tango.

The group consists of the athletes Loreen Hürfen and Olga Ohl, they are accompanied by the (non-disabled) partners Lilian Träger and Madeleine Mothes. You start with a pop choreo. “The most difficult thing is the required 360-degree rotation on one leg – everyone has to be able to do it, otherwise there is no qualification,” says Jörg Dünnebier. And so they train hard for months for the big performance in Graz – which in the end doesn’t take more than two minutes, but has to work perfectly.

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