CHENNAI: The students of Velammal Matriculation School in Mogappair watched some superb acts of daredevilry on Tuesday as they played host to Dunking Devils, and acrobatic basketball team from Europe who had the audience in thrall with their trampoline-fuelled stunts.
Brought to India for their very first performance, courtesy Golden Goose Sports, the Slovenian-origin team had quite a few tricks up their sleeve, first engaging the students in some cheerful banter before unleashing a range of athletic dunk moves. It was an entertaining feat to say the least, because they were performing in harsher conditions than they were used to. “In Europe, the winters usually go down to -20 degrees,” says Marko Knafelc. “We have performed in similar conditions before, but this is our first time in India.”
Marko and the other members — Jan Znidarsic, Primoz Kosir, Botond Dajka and Tadej Solar — are just a few of the Dunking Devil members now counts more than 20 professional performers. “We got together 10 years ago, and now most of us have 4-10 years experience,” says Marko. They have performed in 38 countries. “We develop our stunts daily, and everywhere we go we bring a little piece of all the countries we’ve been to,” he smiles.
Though none of them is professional basketball player, the sport is an important part of their training, which also includes gymnastics. “We train a minimum of three times a week for 90 minutes each day. A lot of these stunts are dangerous and need lots of practice to make them safe,” adds Marko.
“It helps that we are a group of friends, because a lot of the stunts are based on teamwork; you need to be able to trust the guy next to you!”
The team regards the performance at Britian’s Got Talent reality show as one of their memorable moments. “It was very hard to convince Simon (Cowell). He’s a very strict judge, but he really approved of our show. That was a special moment,” adds Marko. Besides, constant feedback and interaction with their audience fuels them to do better. “Interacting with the people…I mean, we want them to clap for us.
We get a lot of energy from that and it’s important that our audience enjoy the show for us to reach greater heights,” smiles Marko.