Despite illness: 14-year-old holds on to the dream - and dances at the German championship
Created: 06/09/2022, 06:02
By: Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss
Enthusiastic about dancing: Johanna Heindl in a dance outfit with her corset.
© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss
Johanna Heindl (14) has scoliosis, a curvature of the spine.
Despite this, the girl takes part in the DAT German Open Championships.
Königsdorf – The ten dancers from TB Blossom from Wolfratshausen enter the stage.
Cheers break out, then the first beat sounds.
Around 1000 visitors and participants enthusiastically follow every step of the young girls.
Here, in Neustadt an der Weinstraße (Rhineland-Palatinate), they fight together with other groups for the title in the Open German HipHop Championship of the German Amateur Tournament Office (DAT), the dance tournament department of the professional association of German dance teachers.
Despite illness: 14-year-old sticks to Tanz-Traum - and dances at the German HipHop Championship
Among them is Johanna Heindl.
The 14-year-old girl from Königsdorf has scoliosis, i.e. a three-dimensional curvature of the spine and torsion of the vertebral bodies.
But that's no reason for Johanna to cut back on her greatest hobby, dancing.
The diagnosis itself was more of a coincidence.
"I always had back pain," says Johanna looking back today.
"But that's more likely to be blamed on a satchel that's too heavy or the wrong mattress." When she was eight or nine years old, classmates started a challenge to see who could stretch out their arm the longest.
“Suddenly, my classmates pointed to my elbow – somehow it seemed totally twisted.” At first, the 14-year-old thought that her classmates were just trying to annoy her – but then she told her pediatrician about it.
She became suspicious and referred the young girl to an orthopedist in Munich.
"He diagnosed scoliosis and prescribed me physio."
A curvature of the spine doesn't slow girls down: Johanna is a fighter
However, a check-up revealed that the curvature had worsened.
Johanna got a medical corset, which is supposed to steer the growth of the spine by exerting pressure and relieving the strain.
The petite girl points to the rigid-looking tool.
"I have to wear it for around 20 hours a day - it's not always great, especially in summer."
But Johanna is an absolute fighter.
Dancing has been one of her greatest hobbies since she was eleven years old.
"It's commercial dance," she says, a mix of hip-hop and jazz.
Together with other girls - the group is called TB Blossom - she trains twice a week if possible at the Müller dance center in Wolfratshausen.
Johanna was specially cast for the German Championships in July last year.
The dance in the formation is not completely new for them.
"I've done that before, but in a different age group."
Scoliosis in a young dancer: 14-year-old still dances at championship level
When it comes to creating the choreography, her illness is not taken into account.
"Why should I?" asks Johanna.
"If it hurts, I just clench my teeth.
Then that'll work too.” The girl from Königsdorf shrugs her shoulders.
"Not much more can go wrong."
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Then the time came.
The girls traveled to the competition in Neustadt with family members, another dance formation and trainer Marie-Thérèse Müller, known as Mausi.
The formation has chosen black pants and beige hoodies as uniform clothing.
"We're the casual ones," says Johanna about her outfit.
You can read the latest news from Wolfratshausen, Geretsried and the surrounding area here
"Our goal," emphasizes Müller, is not to win the competition.
It's more important to us just to have fun with the performance.” The first priority is the community spirit.
“We share a love of sport.
We have no opponents – and neither are we.”
Ultimately, TB Blossom earned sixth place.
A result that Johanna and all her teammates are extremely proud of.