Balancing on the palms of his hands, Odgerel Gombo folds his spine and bends his knees so that his toes rest comfortably on his shoulders.
The contortionist from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, traveled and performed all over the world for more than 20 years, from Hamburg, Germany, to Las Palmas, Spain, to Conakry, Guinea, but his latest destination is the John Wooden Center.
Paul Luigi, who founded the UCLA Contortion Performing Arts Club, met Gombo at a Mongolian Festival in Los Angeles last year. Luigi said he learned that he and Gombo, who performed at the event, shared common acquaintances in the contortion discipline, and the two became fast friends.
Seizing the opportunity, Luigi, who works for the UCLA Latin American Institute, introduced Gombo to his Contortion Club at UCLA.
“Officially he’s not a trainer, but he’s helping to raise awareness of the possible art,” Luigi said. “And the more we have people, the more possible it is for us to bring a trainer full-time.”
Most of the students in the group are beginning contortionists. Training Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Yates Gymnasium in the Wooden Center during the Open Recreation Gymnastics hours, they simply stretch. And stretch. And stretch.
“My stretch before (joining the UCLA Contortion Club) was pretty weak,” first-year music student Shauna Klebesadel said. “But my backbends are getting a lot better, and my splits are finally getting somewhere. It just takes time and patience.”
While most of the contortion students have not had a whole lot of experience in contortion, which is essentially a combination of acrobatics and circus arts, they come from various backgrounds of sports and exercise.
Klebesadel practiced martial arts for eight years but said that she never really focused on stretching.
Lisa Ciuffetti, a first-year undeclared humanities student, said that she dabbled in dance classes in the past but was never really committed to it.
Even Luigi was a gymnast for eight years, since age 10.
“I tried (contortion) as a kid, but I stopped because I listened to adults around me,” Luigi said. “And only now I’m only stretching trying to do something.”
Curious about contortion because of what he had seen on TV, Luigi said that he did not know much about the activity when he started and received some negative feedback regarding contortion from his family and friends.
“Most of the time people think it’s not good for your body,” he said. “It took me several years to figure that out if it really is not good for your body or not or if it’s OK. And I think now it’s fine, it’s just stretching slowly, carefully, and it’s just a matter of training.”
On the other side of the twisting and bending spectrum is Gombo, who the UCLA students call “O”. His nickname not only stemmed from his unique first name but also from his experience auditioning for Cirque du Soleil, which has a logo of a golden “O”.
He started out as a dancer, but his flexibility garnered attention at a Mongolian circus. At age 11, Gombo joined the circus to become a contortionist and never looked back.
Students join the UCLA Contortion Club for different reasons, but they all agree that the intrigue of circus arts draws them in.
“I just looked online, and I was looking at all the student groups that we have, and the contortion one kind of stuck out to me because I’ve always liked the circus,” Ciuffetti said.
Klebesadel said that she joined the club because she had enjoyed Cirque du Soleil and circus arts for a long time.
“Because I think it’s a magnificent art, a beautiful art, and it’s not well-known in the West, and I think it’s sad,” Luigi said. “I think we should bring that to the West.”
While contortion is a much more prevalent art in Mongolia, Luigi said that there is a certain mystery about it that causes it to fly under the radar in the West. But contortion wows Western audiences, not only because of the “unnatural” flexibility of the contortionist but also the performance element of the art.
“The point is to move people, to impress,” Luigi said. “It’s a visual performance. It’s a combination to fully succeed in a good visual performance. It’s a combination of flexibility, obviously, strength and probably some dancing skills.”
But Luigi added that contortion performances are not just about physical abilities.
“And then there’s the personality, the person can interpret whatever they’re doing.”
However, both Luigi and Gombo emphasized the importance of seeking professional training to avoid injury.
“Kids should be careful on their own by themselves,” Luigi said. “They should look for official trainers so that they don’t stretch (just) one part of their spine. You want to stretch the entire spine. The hip flexors are on the leg, and (flexors) also (on) the shoulders. So you want to be safe.”
Ultimately, the art of contortion is also a form of exercise.
“I think that contortion ““ as unnatural as it looks ““ is actually really healthy for you,” Klebesadel said. “When you’re able to stretch, I’m pretty sure it loosens up your muscles, it gets rid of stress really nicely. If you’re all tense and rigid, you can’t move, you can’t breathe, but if you’re able to stretch and really relax your entire body and have no limits when you’re stretching, you just have endless possibilities.”
These endless possibilities might come in the form of Mr. Gombo, whose chin and neck rest on the floor mat as he looks straight ahead at the back of his calves.
“It’s just fun to see sort of a goal,” Ciuffetti said. “It’s a very far away goal, but it’s still nice to see what practice can get you to. It’s sort of an end result to look at.”
Awesome!!