What is a Contortionist?

Series Summary

Though we may not think it about in terms of our everyday lives, we are all contortionists. Whether we are bending over backwards to make a good impression at work or twisting stories around to make ourselves look better, we stretch the truth every which way. Even our bodies are stretched to the limit, reaching to get the recipe that fell behind the fridge or straining to get a wrench on that spark plug under the hood. However, few of us are willing to dedicate our lives to contortion, to become an ist beyond our chance encounters. In this series of videos, our expert contortionist demonstrates how she can manifest our inner turmoil and outer frustrations in bizarre poses and spine-defying moves .

Professional gymnast Hayley Holmes demonstrates how to become a contortionist with several stretching exercises, handstands, splits and basic moves borrowed from yoga and ballet. She tells you how and why she became interested in contortionism and suggests career options should you become interested as well. And best of all, she twists into some truly amazing positions right before your eyes.

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Hayley Holmes and welcome to Expert Village. I'm here to share my expertise with you. You might be asking what in the world are you an expert at. Well, I'm a contortionist. Okay, you might be asking yourself what in the world is a contortionist. A contortionist is somebody who is able to do various different maneuvers with their body. You know, create freaky positions or various different things that you might not see on an average day. Either using their back or their legs. Some people even pop out their arms and can do crazy things with their arms. My specialty is more my back and my leg area. Another cool thing that contortionist can do is fit into the smallest, tiniest places. So say you've got that box over there. I can fit right in there. Why would I want to plane ticket when I can just put myself in a box and ship myself right off. It's a lot cheaper than first class. Maybe not as comfortable, but a lot cheaper. Another thing that you're able to do as a contortionist people is wow people. It's a completely unique thing that most people on the average day that you would meet are not able to do. With time and practice, you're able to accomplish quite amazing tricks. Through the next series of episodes that you'll be seeing on the site, I'll be teaching you various stretching exercise and certain basic maneuvers that you can do and harder more advanced maneuvers that you could also pursue for those of you who feel ready for the challenge. I'm Hayley Holmes. I'm a contortionist, and I'm excited for you to watch the rest and learn exactly how to contort. Thank you."