Dergin Tokmak, also known as Stix, has become famous for his dance on crutches.
He became infected with poliomyelitis as a one-year-old child and since then has no control over his left and sometimes also his right leg. But that didn’t stop him from following his dream of becoming a dancer. Inspired by the movie Breakin (1984) he started to develop his own way of dancing on crutches at the age of 12. In the breakdance and hip-hop scene he won several dance competitions.
From 2004 to 2011 he belonged to the ensemble of Cirque du Soleil and performed there for the worldwide tour “Varekai” in the role of the “limping angel”. This made him the only German artist and the only physically handicapped artist in the entire ensemble.
In 2011 he appeared in the German TV show Das Supertalent and reached the finals. Through this performance Dergin Tokmak became known to the masses. In 2012 he published his autobiography Stix: Mein Weg zum Tänzer auf Krücken.
Our partner Ossenberg meets Dergin Tokmak for the first time in 2012 at REHACARE. Since then they have been supporting the artist with individual walking aids for his extraordinary tricks and dance moves. Due to the special strain, the supports have to withstand a lot more than with normal use, which is why the company Ossenberg is the perfect partner with its special production. In order to meet the requirements, the BIG XL walking aid 332 was reinforced and adapted to the load.
The REHACARE-Team took this as an opportunity to shoot a video in which Tokmak and the sales manager of Ossenberg GmbH, Andreas Fritz, tell in an interview what makes the Stix walking aids so special and what they have to endure.