Mongolian Contortion. Ancient tradition & contemporary Circus Art - a conversation with Serchmaa Byamba
When I think of contortion, I think of people without spines who have started training hard at a very young age. I think of a discipline that I could never imagine getting into myself - not because I don’t want to but because it feels unattainable.
To my big surprise, contortion is so much more than I thought. A vast, ancient art form with deep roots in a tradition that has been carried on and developed over countless generations.
I was honoured to have the chance to interview Serchmaa Byamba about contortion and how it relates to handbalance. She is the founder of the Mongolian Contortion Center SF and is Master Instructor and Contortion Department Director at Circus Center in San Francisco.
HSP: Tell me about contortion training; what does it look like?
SB: Contortion is a very vast art that has its own method of training. It’s not related to any other genre of circus like acrobatics or handbalance. We have our own process. My method is based on Mongolian contortion and its traditional techniques that I was introduced to by my teacher, Madame Tsend-Ayush. I want to mention her name because she mixed the traditional art with circus technique and has set a foundation for an art that is taught by countless people and is continuously growing to this day.
Contortion is a deeply rooted tradition and is very big in my country. In Mongolia it’s our traditional classic art form, like ballet in so many countries. But it also has traditional roots in other countries, like China and Russia, and each of them have their own techniques and methods.
HSP: What is the main focus when you teach contortion?
SB: My method is angled towards three different paths: beginner, intermediate and advanced. The individual program is based on that.
In beginners classes we mainly focus on stretching and conditioning. We always practice strength and flexibility together. It’s fifty-fifty. Lots of people, even many of my students, think that we focus a lot more on flexibility. But I often hear: “I had no idea how much I had to focus on my strength, my shoulder strength. I never knew I had to use it this much.”
In the intermediate class the focus is still fifty-fifty strength and flexibility.
In the advanced classes the focus changes. Balance becomes more important and takes over about 60-70 percent of the training, while building flexibility goes to about 30 percent. The more advanced you become, the more the main focus shifts to building strength, balance and control.
I want to mention that this is the circus-related technique, though. This is how we train to develop the circus art form. The more traditional, ancient art form was based mostly on flexibility and dance. Balancing wasn’t really a big part of it. We call it body dancing, the dance of the body movement.
There’s a big difference between the traditional Mongolian and the circus art form of contortion. I believe that the fusion of the two is what makes the Mongolian contortion technique unique. We combine it with the art form of dance and traditional body movements. I think that’s why a lot of people really like it. It makes it very special.
HSP: It seems like contortion is way more complex than handbalancing - would you say that’s true? What would you say is the big difference?
SB: I think contortion is a wider art form. We use dance, acting, balance and flexibility. It’s packed with so many aspects. In this sense, it’s important to know that contortion is not just a circus thing but a combined art form that fuses all of the above.
It is very difficult to learn. Lots of people join and think it’s only about flexibility, but then they start realizing how much more goes into it. In the end it becomes about translating your art into balance, control, dance expression and movement.
That’s my way of seeing it and I’m sure lots of Mongolian teachers would agree. That’s what my teacher taught me. I really love that and try to pass on this way of thinking to my students too. So when I teach, I try to give them all of the aspects of this art.
HSP: What are considered the hardest tricks in contortion?
SB: Lots of people would be shocked; it’s a one-arm handstand. But it’s easier to keep it once you learn the technique and how to isolate and lock your muscles - it stays a bit longer than other tricks.
Lots of people think the hardest trick is a Mouthpiece, but people don’t realize how much time you have to spend to learn to do solid one-arm handstands. The learning process for the Mouthpiece and the push-up is easier to develop and faster to learn, but they’re also easier to lose if you don’t practice them regularly. Those tricks are more related to your conditioning than your technique.
HSP: That’s super interesting! It seems like a contortionist has to be at the same level of an elite handbalancer, but on top of that they have to be able to bend and move in all directions.
SB: Exactly. I’m very happy that you’re recognising this. It’s a very important message. Sometimes people don’t notice that.
HSP: The first time I realized it was when I met the Mongolian contortionist Serchmaa Oui. We were in Nagoya, Japan, maybe two years ago. She invited us backstage to the Cirque show Kurios, and I saw her warm up backstage. She was warming up with straight handstands, not contortion. She did several switches (one-arm jumps) in a row, one-arm shape changes and like ten stalder presses to warm up, and it all looked so easy. I was amazed.
SB: Exactly. I’m sure in the professional world, everyone knows how it works and how hard we work. In the nonprofessional field, even my students who were trained in flexibility and take classes in straight handstands sometimes don’t realize how much we have to work on handbalance and strength exercises. It’s a huge part of contortion.
I’d also like to say that’s why many people don’t do it. It’s not easy. It takes lots of dedication and control. But on the other hand, I also have to say that you can always improve from where you are. I’m saying this because I’ve taught many adults and have been encouraged by their successes. Many people think they’re too old to start, but there really is no limit. Of course there are certain exercises that become hard to attain. I have to be honest about that as a teacher. I can’t promise a Maltese and one-arm jumps. Those tricks are elite, and aside from being committed they require a certain type of flexibility and training method in order to do them in a healthy and sustainable way. But learning basic contortion moves, improving flexibility and learning handstands - there is no age limit for that. It’s a process that translates differently to everyone, depending on their natural gifts.
HSP: How do you learn a one-arm handstand as a contortionist? Do you learn it in straight first before you start the contortion style ones?
SB: We start working on handbalance from the very beginning. In contortion, flexibility and handbalance always go together, but we train both, the straight handbalancing and the contortion handbalancing.
During training we completely separate the two forms. Straight is straight. We tuck and control the back, core, abs - everything. The foundation for all of this control comes from the shoulders - you push, push, push to be straight. This is the number one thing you need to learn for both: straight and contortion style handstands. Then in contortion you break the line. The techniques are completely different. In contortion you extend your neck and spine and change the angle of the shoulders. We basically put the balance of the body weight on the palms in different shapes.
While the technique is different, the method is the same. I call it body isolation. Understanding the straight-line technique helps to understand contortion and makes the technique more clear. From the straight handstand you start isolating the control in different body parts to create the contortion handstand shapes.
During acts it’s common to use both forms. That’s probably the biggest difference between contortionists and handbalancers. We have to master both and transition from one to the other. So handbalancing is definitely a big part of contortion!
HSP: It’s impressive: you have to learn what regular handbalancers learn but also expand with all the flexibility work and different shapes you do in addition. How many hours do you train? It sounds like you could train forever.
SB: When I was young I used to train at least two to three hours. Later when I became advanced, I trained closer to four hours. Sometimes we had a morning and an afternoon session. We dedicate so much of our time. You have to, really, to get good at it. My childhood consisted of school and spending the rest of the day at the circus school. We always had three hours a day with our teacher. And then we would spend extra time on our own to keep working on the rest of our exercises.
HSP: When did you start?
SB: I started when I was almost eight years old. Here [in San Francisco] people would think it’s very young, but it was actually considered very late. When my teacher met me, she told me I was old, but I had good back flexibility, so she accepted me into the school. My age was her biggest rejection, but we gave it a try anyway, and I’m very honoured to have been her student. My teacher was an amazing woman.
HSP: How much does natural talent play into contortion?
SB: That’s a very good question. Of course talent is important. But I would say that success is really based on the person’s desire to improve and their willingness to work hard. When I was young, they picked us based on our natural flexibility. But then, after entering the school, it was up to your personal motivation and how hard you could work on your own. If you don’t have that drive, your flexibility or talent alone won’t make you succeed. I have many students who started with great natural flexibility and talent, but it doesn’t work out sometimes because they don’t have the right attitude for training. I’ve seen people succeed and become professional contortionists without having that amazing natural flexibility. It’s really your work and motivation that determine what you can achieve.
HSP: I’m impressed you work with adults. I wonder what your experience is like with them gaining flexibility if they didn’t start as a kid.
SB: It depends on their body type, which also informs my approach to how we develop their flexibility. I work with my students as individuals. Some peoples’ body structures are tighter and tend to be stronger and less flexible. Some peoples’ body structures are naturally loose and flexible, and sometimes they even are what we call “double jointed”, which is actually a hypermobility syndrome, a disorder. People who have that disorder have a hard time controlling their flexibility, and we have to spend a lot of time on strengthening and creating control. People with a tighter body type, on the other hand, can take a long time to increase their flexibility. That’s why flexibility has to be programmed on an individual basis.
But working over twenty years in teaching flexibility to adults, my experience has taught me that everybody can improve, and that there is no set limit for how much someone can achieve even later in life. The achievements will just come differently, based on the body type. Everybody can stretch and improve their flexibility, but you have to understand your body.
We all go through different feelings of flexibility and tightness from day to day, regardless of any training. It goes in waves. Sometimes people get confused about that and let it get in the way of continuing their exercises. The difference between feeling tighter and more flexible is bigger when people start stretching, so they feel these fluctuations more strongly. Often they stretch a lot on days where they feel more flexible, and then they feel tighter and crampy on the following days and confuse that with losing flexibility. To let these fluctuations dictate your training is one of the biggest mistakes people make. That’s when it gets confusing to their body and mind.
As long as you understand that your flexibility naturally comes and goes in waves, you can focus on the exercises and separate them from how you feel on that day. Don’t get overly excited and overdo it when you feel soft. That’s not going to help you gain flexibility in the long-term. When you feel tight and want to rest, you don’t want to do that either. Keep your exercises regular. Programming the right exercises and sticking to them regularly will help your body adapt gently and slowly. That has been my method, and I’ve been seeing really good results from my adult students.
It’s a little different with kids. They are not as sensitive to those waves as adults. Kids are still developing, so the body adapts a lot easier, and the reaction to flexibility training is much less intense. That’s why in circus they start very young, and kids can become professionals if they join any art form or sport. The body adapts to the exercises you give it.
HSP: Which do you prefer more: working with kids or adults?
SB: Of course kids have the biggest goals, and I’m passionate about working with them. But I really love working with adults as well. I have two kids, and I’ve experienced big changes in my own body through both of them, so for me it’s very interesting to work with adult bodies. It’s interesting to figure out the different body types and manage the ups and downs and mental obstacles. It’s a challenge in terms of communication as well. But I just love working with people from zero and seeing how far they can go. I would say that’s my biggest passion. It’s so inspiring and rewarding to see a person change in front of your eyes. So even though the circus centre and other places I’ve worked at tell me that I could just focus on teaching the advanced, I always push back and ask to work with beginners as well.
So to answer your question, I think I actually prefer to work with adults over kids because there are more layers to the process. It’s like making a sculpture. Progress takes time and is challenging, but it’s beautiful to experience and see it. At the end of the day, that’s what makes my work very, very special and fills me with joy.
Source: Sonja Smith-Novak, Handstand press
Mongolian Contortion. Ancient tradition & contemporary Circus Art - a conversation with Serchmaa Byamba
When I think of contortion, I think of people without spines who have started training hard at a very young age. I think of a discipline that I could never imagine getting into myself - not because I don’t want to but because it feels unattainable.
To my big surprise, contortion is so much more than I thought. A vast, ancient art form with deep roots in a tradition that has been carried on and developed over countless generations.
I was honoured to have the chance to interview Serchmaa Byamba about contortion and how it relates to handbalance. She is the founder of the Mongolian Contortion Center SF and is Master Instructor and Contortion Department Director at Circus Center in San Francisco.
HSP: Tell me about contortion training; what does it look like?
SB: Contortion is a very vast art that has its own method of training. It’s not related to any other genre of circus like acrobatics or handbalance. We have our own process. My method is based on Mongolian contortion and its traditional techniques that I was introduced to by my teacher, Madame Tsend-Ayush. I want to mention her name because she mixed the traditional art with circus technique and has set a foundation for an art that is taught by countless people and is continuously growing to this day.
Contortion is a deeply rooted tradition and is very big in my country. In Mongolia it’s our traditional classic art form, like ballet in so many countries. But it also has traditional roots in other countries, like China and Russia, and each of them have their own techniques and methods.
HSP: What is the main focus when you teach contortion?
SB: My method is angled towards three different paths: beginner, intermediate and advanced. The individual program is based on that.
In beginners classes we mainly focus on stretching and conditioning. We always practice strength and flexibility together. It’s fifty-fifty. Lots of people, even many of my students, think that we focus a lot more on flexibility. But I often hear: “I had no idea how much I had to focus on my strength, my shoulder strength. I never knew I had to use it this much.”
In the intermediate class the focus is still fifty-fifty strength and flexibility.
In the advanced classes the focus changes. Balance becomes more important and takes over about 60-70 percent of the training, while building flexibility goes to about 30 percent. The more advanced you become, the more the main focus shifts to building strength, balance and control.
I want to mention that this is the circus-related technique, though. This is how we train to develop the circus art form. The more traditional, ancient art form was based mostly on flexibility and dance. Balancing wasn’t really a big part of it. We call it body dancing, the dance of the body movement.
There’s a big difference between the traditional Mongolian and the circus art form of contortion. I believe that the fusion of the two is what makes the Mongolian contortion technique unique. We combine it with the art form of dance and traditional body movements. I think that’s why a lot of people really like it. It makes it very special.
HSP: It seems like contortion is way more complex than handbalancing - would you say that’s true? What would you say is the big difference?
SB: I think contortion is a wider art form. We use dance, acting, balance and flexibility. It’s packed with so many aspects. In this sense, it’s important to know that contortion is not just a circus thing but a combined art form that fuses all of the above.
It is very difficult to learn. Lots of people join and think it’s only about flexibility, but then they start realizing how much more goes into it. In the end it becomes about translating your art into balance, control, dance expression and movement.
That’s my way of seeing it and I’m sure lots of Mongolian teachers would agree. That’s what my teacher taught me. I really love that and try to pass on this way of thinking to my students too. So when I teach, I try to give them all of the aspects of this art.
HSP: What are considered the hardest tricks in contortion?
SB: Lots of people would be shocked; it’s a one-arm handstand. But it’s easier to keep it once you learn the technique and how to isolate and lock your muscles - it stays a bit longer than other tricks.
Lots of people think the hardest trick is a Mouthpiece, but people don’t realize how much time you have to spend to learn to do solid one-arm handstands. The learning process for the Mouthpiece and the push-up is easier to develop and faster to learn, but they’re also easier to lose if you don’t practice them regularly. Those tricks are more related to your conditioning than your technique.
HSP: That’s super interesting! It seems like a contortionist has to be at the same level of an elite handbalancer, but on top of that they have to be able to bend and move in all directions.
SB: Exactly. I’m very happy that you’re recognising this. It’s a very important message. Sometimes people don’t notice that.
HSP: The first time I realized it was when I met the Mongolian contortionist Serchmaa Oui. We were in Nagoya, Japan, maybe two years ago. She invited us backstage to the Cirque show Kurios, and I saw her warm up backstage. She was warming up with straight handstands, not contortion. She did several switches (one-arm jumps) in a row, one-arm shape changes and like ten stalder presses to warm up, and it all looked so easy. I was amazed.
SB: Exactly. I’m sure in the professional world, everyone knows how it works and how hard we work. In the nonprofessional field, even my students who were trained in flexibility and take classes in straight handstands sometimes don’t realize how much we have to work on handbalance and strength exercises. It’s a huge part of contortion.
I’d also like to say that’s why many people don’t do it. It’s not easy. It takes lots of dedication and control. But on the other hand, I also have to say that you can always improve from where you are. I’m saying this because I’ve taught many adults and have been encouraged by their successes. Many people think they’re too old to start, but there really is no limit. Of course there are certain exercises that become hard to attain. I have to be honest about that as a teacher. I can’t promise a Maltese and one-arm jumps. Those tricks are elite, and aside from being committed they require a certain type of flexibility and training method in order to do them in a healthy and sustainable way. But learning basic contortion moves, improving flexibility and learning handstands - there is no age limit for that. It’s a process that translates differently to everyone, depending on their natural gifts.
HSP: How do you learn a one-arm handstand as a contortionist? Do you learn it in straight first before you start the contortion style ones?
SB: We start working on handbalance from the very beginning. In contortion, flexibility and handbalance always go together, but we train both, the straight handbalancing and the contortion handbalancing.
During training we completely separate the two forms. Straight is straight. We tuck and control the back, core, abs - everything. The foundation for all of this control comes from the shoulders - you push, push, push to be straight. This is the number one thing you need to learn for both: straight and contortion style handstands. Then in contortion you break the line. The techniques are completely different. In contortion you extend your neck and spine and change the angle of the shoulders. We basically put the balance of the body weight on the palms in different shapes.
While the technique is different, the method is the same. I call it body isolation. Understanding the straight-line technique helps to understand contortion and makes the technique more clear. From the straight handstand you start isolating the control in different body parts to create the contortion handstand shapes.
During acts it’s common to use both forms. That’s probably the biggest difference between contortionists and handbalancers. We have to master both and transition from one to the other. So handbalancing is definitely a big part of contortion!
HSP: It’s impressive: you have to learn what regular handbalancers learn but also expand with all the flexibility work and different shapes you do in addition. How many hours do you train? It sounds like you could train forever.
SB: When I was young I used to train at least two to three hours. Later when I became advanced, I trained closer to four hours. Sometimes we had a morning and an afternoon session. We dedicate so much of our time. You have to, really, to get good at it. My childhood consisted of school and spending the rest of the day at the circus school. We always had three hours a day with our teacher. And then we would spend extra time on our own to keep working on the rest of our exercises.
HSP: When did you start?
SB: I started when I was almost eight years old. Here [in San Francisco] people would think it’s very young, but it was actually considered very late. When my teacher met me, she told me I was old, but I had good back flexibility, so she accepted me into the school. My age was her biggest rejection, but we gave it a try anyway, and I’m very honoured to have been her student. My teacher was an amazing woman.
HSP: How much does natural talent play into contortion?
SB: That’s a very good question. Of course talent is important. But I would say that success is really based on the person’s desire to improve and their willingness to work hard. When I was young, they picked us based on our natural flexibility. But then, after entering the school, it was up to your personal motivation and how hard you could work on your own. If you don’t have that drive, your flexibility or talent alone won’t make you succeed. I have many students who started with great natural flexibility and talent, but it doesn’t work out sometimes because they don’t have the right attitude for training. I’ve seen people succeed and become professional contortionists without having that amazing natural flexibility. It’s really your work and motivation that determine what you can achieve.
HSP: I’m impressed you work with adults. I wonder what your experience is like with them gaining flexibility if they didn’t start as a kid.
SB: It depends on their body type, which also informs my approach to how we develop their flexibility. I work with my students as individuals. Some peoples’ body structures are tighter and tend to be stronger and less flexible. Some peoples’ body structures are naturally loose and flexible, and sometimes they even are what we call “double jointed”, which is actually a hypermobility syndrome, a disorder. People who have that disorder have a hard time controlling their flexibility, and we have to spend a lot of time on strengthening and creating control. People with a tighter body type, on the other hand, can take a long time to increase their flexibility. That’s why flexibility has to be programmed on an individual basis.
But working over twenty years in teaching flexibility to adults, my experience has taught me that everybody can improve, and that there is no set limit for how much someone can achieve even later in life. The achievements will just come differently, based on the body type. Everybody can stretch and improve their flexibility, but you have to understand your body.
We all go through different feelings of flexibility and tightness from day to day, regardless of any training. It goes in waves. Sometimes people get confused about that and let it get in the way of continuing their exercises. The difference between feeling tighter and more flexible is bigger when people start stretching, so they feel these fluctuations more strongly. Often they stretch a lot on days where they feel more flexible, and then they feel tighter and crampy on the following days and confuse that with losing flexibility. To let these fluctuations dictate your training is one of the biggest mistakes people make. That’s when it gets confusing to their body and mind.
As long as you understand that your flexibility naturally comes and goes in waves, you can focus on the exercises and separate them from how you feel on that day. Don’t get overly excited and overdo it when you feel soft. That’s not going to help you gain flexibility in the long-term. When you feel tight and want to rest, you don’t want to do that either. Keep your exercises regular. Programming the right exercises and sticking to them regularly will help your body adapt gently and slowly. That has been my method, and I’ve been seeing really good results from my adult students.
It’s a little different with kids. They are not as sensitive to those waves as adults. Kids are still developing, so the body adapts a lot easier, and the reaction to flexibility training is much less intense. That’s why in circus they start very young, and kids can become professionals if they join any art form or sport. The body adapts to the exercises you give it.
HSP: Which do you prefer more: working with kids or adults?
SB: Of course kids have the biggest goals, and I’m passionate about working with them. But I really love working with adults as well. I have two kids, and I’ve experienced big changes in my own body through both of them, so for me it’s very interesting to work with adult bodies. It’s interesting to figure out the different body types and manage the ups and downs and mental obstacles. It’s a challenge in terms of communication as well. But I just love working with people from zero and seeing how far they can go. I would say that’s my biggest passion. It’s so inspiring and rewarding to see a person change in front of your eyes. So even though the circus centre and other places I’ve worked at tell me that I could just focus on teaching the advanced, I always push back and ask to work with beginners as well.
So to answer your question, I think I actually prefer to work with adults over kids because there are more layers to the process. It’s like making a sculpture. Progress takes time and is challenging, but it’s beautiful to experience and see it. At the end of the day, that’s what makes my work very, very special and fills me with joy.
Source: Sonja Smith-Novak, Handstand press