For Jacob Lund, 22, and Cecilie Lindegaard Broe, 25, gymnastics isn’t a competition. It’s a performance.
Lund and Broe are members of the National Danish Performance Team, a group comprised of 14 male and 14 female Danish gymnasts aged 20-26. During the tour’s six month run, these artists and athletes have already visited Germany, Tanzania, Australia, China and Mexico. This month, the team will visit South Florida, performing in Davie, Miami and Coral Springs. In addition to performing, the team continues to train and also teaches workshops on dancing and acrobatics while on tour.
Lund and Broe shared what they love about gymnastics and their favorite memories from the tour.
How long have you been training in gymnastics?
Broe: “I started when I was maybe three years old. I went with my mom, and then when I started school I started going on my own. So almost my whole life.”
Lund: “Same with me. I’ve also played a lot of [other sports] as well besides gymnastics. It was only a couple years ago that I really started focusing on gymnastics. So I’ve always been doing lots of sports, and I finally decided that I wanted to join this team and that I needed to focus on only gymnastics.”
How did you get on the National Danish Performance Team? What was that process like?
Broe: “It was in February last year. We went to audition for a whole weekend in Denmark… A few days after we went to talk to all the people who are in charge of the team and two days after that we were selected. I think there were about 100 girls and 70 boys [that auditioned].”
Lund: “It’s a high privilege to join the team. It’s a good team – one of the best in Denmark. Everyone doing gymnastics on a high level will try to make the team… I feel lucky to have made it to this team. I think this may be the peak of my career because it’s really good.”
The style of gymnastics that the team does is not what Americans may think of as gymnastics. What is the difference between American gymnastics and what you do?
Lund: “[Americans] do a lot of artistic gymnastics with the high bar and the rings and the floor. We do a different kind. We do a lot of tumbling, but on other equipment. We do power tumbling, but on long tracks [filled] with air…and we use a mini trampoline…[our gymnastics] has been inspired by dance.”
Broe: “Our gymnastics isn’t competitive. We just do the show. It’s more about having fun and showing what we can do in that way.”
Lund: “We don’t compete, not even when we tumble. We train all year, and at the end of the year we do a performance that we’ve been training on to show everyone. So it’s a lot more for the community and the society.”
What keeps you personally motivated?
Lund: “My biggest motivation is the team. Being together with these amazing guys. I love doing workshops to see the kids smile, and it’s always fun together with your teammates. To keep the show improving and becoming a better gymnast is also one of my main motivations.”
Broe: “[I’m motivated by] meeting so many people out in the world.”
What’s the most challenging thing about being on the team?
Broe: “There’s always something to do. It’s not like you can just relax one day… We still have a lot of fun, but you can’t go into your own living room and be yourself.”
Lund: “You always have to be prepared to do something else. You’ve been told that you have a workshop with 2,000 boy scouts in the age group 12-15, and you go there and there’s 50 elderly women ready to do a workshop. So you never know what to expect.”
What’s your favorite memory from the tour so far?
Lund: “We were in Indonesia and we had to do a workshop at a school with 3,000 school kids. We came and we put up all the equipment, and suddenly we had to go to a classroom and the classroom was full of chairs. We got to sit down, and they did a performance for us instead with singing and dancing. They invited us up to sing along and dance and it was a lot of fun… That was an amazing day.”
Broe: “One of my favorite moments was the first time in the first country where we had to do the show. It was in Germany. There was so many people, and it was like, now this tour is starting. It was not only the Danish people watching. And the first time in Africa and the first time in Australia, it was very special.”
Do you have any funny stories from being on tour?
Lund: “We were going to take a picture in front of the opera house in Sydney, and we had to wear our white clothes from the show. That’s a long white shirt and long white pants. Then one of the boys forgot all his clothes. So luckily someone had a white towel, and he wrapped it around his waist. One of the other guys bought a new white shirt that same day, so he had that to wear. He was put in the background and we actually got a pretty good photo that day.”
Why did you choose gymnastics instead of doing other things with your life?
Broe: “It’s about the friendships you make, and the team spirit. You’re doing it together with a lot of people and not just yourself. That means a lot for me. You get a lot of experiences with someone else.”
Lund: “If you make a mistake, the whole team backs you up and says, ‘It’s OK, go again.’ It’s not like when you lose a goal in soccer or anything like that. It’s the community of gymnastics that’s nice.”
The team’s current show is “IMANI,” which means “faith” in Swahili. According to Lund, the show represents not just religious faith, but faith in the community. For more information on the National Danish Performance Team’s tour schedule, visit dgi.dk/ndpt/world-tour/tour-calender.
Credit: J. Juliussen
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Caption: Lund and Broe performing in the National Danish Performance Team’s show, “IMANI.”
