Unconventional Athletes Issue 11
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on the individual and their willingness<br />
to put the time in. If I had to pick the<br />
most important muscle it would be the<br />
core, stomach muscles.<br />
For strength training we do a lot of<br />
V-ups, pull-ups, push-ups…it makes a<br />
huge difference. Students need to do 2<br />
minute wall handstands and not sink in<br />
their shoulders.<br />
How long does it normally take to<br />
become a fully competent contortionist?<br />
Can it be self-taught?<br />
It’s not really possible to put a<br />
timeline on how long it takes to<br />
reach an advanced level because all<br />
of our bodies are so different. I have<br />
students amazing after 2 1/2 years,<br />
like Bella, and some need more time to<br />
develop. Disclaimer: Another factor is willingness<br />
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to train extra while not in the studio<br />
setting. This is key to a contortionist’s<br />
success as it’s not always easy to<br />
stay motivated while on your own.<br />
What self-taught contortionists sometimes<br />
don’t realize is that lack of strength<br />
can be highly dangerous to your spine,<br />
shoulders and neck. Strength training<br />
is a necessity – no exceptions! If I<br />
had a choice between a student who<br />
is strong but not naturally flexible, or a<br />
flexible student not naturally strong, I’d<br />
take the strong student.<br />
How long have you been teaching<br />
contortion? What made you choose<br />
such a discipline?<br />
I have been teaching contortion for 17<br />
years and dance for 30 years. I was a former<br />
ballet/point dancer who stumbled into the<br />
dance school thing when my old teacher<br />
retired and the students had nowhere to<br />
go for good ballet training.<br />
When I received a new student named<br />
Lindsay who was very flexible and<br />
could do things I’ve never seen before, I<br />
started to learn more about contortion.<br />
All my life I’ve wanted to be different<br />
and not be like everybody else and this<br />
inspired me to learn more.<br />
As a dancer my entire life I had limited<br />
exposure to other genres or arts which<br />
left me feeling stale and bored. I wanted<br />
to educate myself on safe techniques<br />
to achieve such beautiful positions.<br />
I learned many techniques including<br />
Ukrainian, German and Mongolian. I<br />
travelled and did research and brought<br />
in the best in the business to educate<br />
me and my students.<br />
Have you ever practiced contortion?<br />
I was never a contortionist. I was a ballet<br />
dancer, which lends itself with poses<br />
and flexibility to contortion. I started<br />
dancing at age 9, started teaching at<br />
age 15 and went to college for it for a<br />
while. Interestingly enough, I’d say 98%<br />
of the time I can tell a student how it<br />
should feel even though I can’t do it.<br />
I think from years of having to know<br />
my body so well, because ballet is so<br />
brutal, you just learn that.<br />
Do your students compete? How do<br />
judges score contestants?<br />
We do compete at local competitions<br />
in Pittsburgh, PA, and our contortionists<br />
do very well receiving very high<br />
scores, special awards and overall<br />
placements. But there isn’t in general<br />
a division that’s called “contortion” so<br />
a lot of the judges are dance judges<br />
and aren’t familiar with the contortion<br />
aspect. A lot of times they offer open<br />
categories or gymnastic categories<br />
and that’s where we have to put our<br />
students. But they don’t like that very<br />
much because that really isn’t their<br />
sport. The best place to compete is<br />
within circus competitions.<br />
Where do your students perform?<br />
We are planning to leave town shortly<br />
for Bella to perform on ‘Little Big Shots’<br />
in both Italy and Columbia and she<br />
will perform on a nationally televised<br />
show in the U.S. soon, too. Also, we<br />
performed at the ICC or International<br />
Contortion Convention in Las Vegas in<br />
2016 and with Le Petit, which is an allchild<br />
circus based in Los Angeles. We<br />
believe in supporting charities and did<br />
an event with CBS studios to support<br />
Cystic Fibrosis as well as many other<br />
events and fundraisers.
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