My journey as a contortionist

I went through exciting times in my childhood, times where I would push myself to extreme measures and encounter activities beyond the ordinary. Bending and twisting my body in unusual positions in a way of relieving stress but also resisting pain. By doing these extreme activities may look painful to the spectators but I don’t feel any pain at all, I feel very relaxed whenever I do any contortion moves. This made me question myself as to whether I was built different, do I have hyper flexibility, do I have a spine or bones and is this a unique superpower. I always loved the creative aspect of my body as well as wanting to explore more in what my body could handle, exceeding the limitations of my body. From fitting into tiny spaces, to compressing my body in unusual shapes. But also, entertaining the spectators. By performing, this created unexpected and overwhelming reactions towards an audience. I got a lot of reactions and praises from street performing and dance classes which I felt really proud of. I began my journey as a contortionist at a young age in Russia as a I knew that I had a hidden talent and natural flexibility. I felt I could unleash this talent and transform myself into a stronger, limber person which would benefit me both physically and mentally. Through years of intensive training, I realised that in order to achieve anything extreme as a contortionist, it requires lifetime workouts and continuously fighting against pain. It was slightly painful at the start when I practiced doing the splits. 1 week later I managed to do both front and middle splits as well as extreme over splits. I also needed to be aware of the balance in my body. Balancing out both back bending and front bending to avoid any injuries. So I also stretched my body in front bending workouts which gave a great impact on my flexibility. This goes to show that Pain is not going to stop me from accomplishing my goals, so I ignored the pain and stretched the limits my body could encounter. I started travelling through many countries including the US, UAE, Qatar, Poland, Canada and the UK where I originated and many other countries. I took on many levels of training and performances which required intense training. From gymnastics and acrobatics, to Aerial arts and circus performance. Travelling in many countries was a joy as I began to experience different cultures and meeting new people. This was an incredible experience for me as I danced in the air and doing tricks upside down. I was most excited about aerial hoop and aerial silks dancing because of the way I can spin high in the sky while doing crazy flips and tricks. For me, the aerial silks was challenging because of the way I spun and dropped from a high distance and speed was nerve racking, but it was amusing to experience. I loved this whole experience and I intend to carry on performing aerial arts by expanding on my abilities. This made me think that life is better upside down. What I have learnt so far in this journey is that it’s never too late to accomplish your dreams, as long to commit to your goals and take small steps at a time. In addition, it’s mainly based on the amount of effort you put into a certain task so you need to keep pushing yourself to achieve what you want. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. Now, I am still continuing to stretch and strengthen my body and becoming an extreme contortionist. I find that bending and twisting my body helps me keep motivated and stronger in life, by using stress and pain as a motif to fight against it.