Leotard 0: A Night out in Town

I generally don't go out at nights for entertainment. Heck, I generally don't go out of my house at all. I work at home as an independent programmer, making games and applications that earn me a steady income. BASIC, PYTHON, CSS; I know them all and use them all quite often.

I'm one of those people that enjoy contortion. Not really the kind that are on those pay-to-view websites or the circus, although I do join them occasionally, but the kind that appears as a hobby. I do enjoy standalone shows and acts, mostly because the art is demonstrated flawlessly and not as a time-waster.

This would explain why I was out. I had noticed on an upcoming contortionist's website that they were doing a performance in my city. She was an extremely flexible contortionist that always seems to wear the one leotard when performing. She was quite an attention-grabber to me for unknown reasons, and that's why I went: to see her performance.

The venue was quite small. After all, it was very old and low-quality, but it didn't bother me. Its purpose was to feature a contortionist that I had my eye on, and it wouldn't stop me from doing that.

I took a seat quite close to the front. There weren't many people at the venue, and most of the people were seated in the back half, but I wanted to get a good close look at this contortionist as she performed. I think that the others were either fetishists or generally bored people that didn't want to show their faces.

I was still alone at the front when the lights dimmed, a signal that the performance was going to start. I was ecstatic about it, but was trying to hide my excitement by sitting on my hands and biting my lip. Soon I had it under control, and was ready to watch the contortionist perform.

*

From behind a ragged curtain a woman in a sky blue full-body leotard strolled to the middle of the stage. Her body was flat, as a contortionist's was, and her hair was a dull gray. She looked pretty average normally, but knowing she was a contortionist, I knew there was a lot more to her.

A loud series of clacks sounded from the stage as a round wooden pedestal slowly rose from the stage floor. This was where she was going to perform, not all around the stage like dancers or other entertainers. The woman lay spread-eagled face down on the pedestal with her legs straight behind her.

With a swift flick of her hips, she flung her legs up and over her head, arching her back into a near-perfect curve. Her trim calves dangled in front of her head as she smiled at the audience, and in particular, me. I don't know if it was because she liked me from her first glance or if it was just that I was the only one in the front half of the seating area, but it felt special that she was paying attention to me.

She slowly lifted her legs onto the pedestal, her feet sitting flat on either side of her head, and took a short breath. Then, pushing down on the tops of her feet, she pushed her head so her eyes were at the same level as her knees and looked out at the audience, keeping a similar grin to when she smiled at me.

With a quick flick of her left leg and a straightening of her right, she worked herself into a backbend split. Then, with a pull, she worked herself into an oversplit with her right foot on the stage floor. She gave a short pause, in which I gave a short and quiet clap, she stood herself up and sat down on the pedestal with her legs crossed.

From her seated position she lifted both her legs up and tucked them behind her shoulders, completely straight. Then, turning her right leg, she pushed it down her back until her toes were touching the pedestal. I knew that the backbend and oversplit were both amazing in their own right, but any experienced contortionist could do that; this position I had never seen done by any contortionist before, only drawn by fans of the art.

Looking at me and giving a half-grin, she then repeated what she just did with her right leg using her left leg with ease. Any fan of contortion would agree that this was extremely difficult to do, and someone doing it with ease could easily be called one of the best. Something, whether it was the half-grin she gave me or the simplicity of the move, gave me the impression that she was not done with this move yet.

And I was right. Once in the pose, she took a small breath and leaned forwards so she was lying as flat on the pedestal as she could be. Then, reaching behind her back and pulling her feet, she managed to make it so that her calves were directly parallel to each other and her feet were below her hips. I knew that she was the best contortionist in the world, right at that moment...

...but she was not done yet. Getting out of the bend, she stood up and lifted her right leg. With both legs straight, she stood in a standing straddle split, then pulled her right leg towards her head, making the split go into an oversplit. Soon she was at Irina Kazakova's level, with her leg actually past the 270 degree mark, but she was still going.

Eventually she pulled her leg so it was almost next to her left, a split that totalled about 330 degrees. This was utterly impossible in my mind; never in real life, only one fan's drawings, have I seen this large a bend. Had it been a larger performance, someone would have taken a photo and put it up on the internet, making her world-famous. I knew then that I had found the reason for why she hadn't chosen a larger venue for her performance: because she didn't want to be famous.

I gave a loud round of applause in honour of her amazing flexibility. No-one else clapped, but I knew they were too afraid to be found out if they did. However, she recognised my appreciation of her and actually called me up onto the stage.

Nervous, I walked up the stairs on the side and headed to her. She seemed quite calm about this; in fact she looked a bit hopeful. I don't know why though, as I didn't know too much about her and she probably hadn't heard of me.

"Don't worry," She said to me in a calming tone, "This is only a small thing to show the limits of my flexibility."

"It's not you I'm nervous about," I whispered to her, "It's being in front of the crowd." She immediately gave a small laugh, which seemed to reduce my nerves. "What do I have to do?"

"All I want you to do is pull my arms when I tell you," She said, "I guess you'd know what pose I'm doing."

"The triplefold?" I quietly asked, and she nodded. "Okay, I'm ready."

Bending backwards, she got on her knees and tucked her head through her legs. She then spread them out and squeezed her arms through for me to grab them. With a quick nod from her as a signal, I held her wrists firmly and pulled her gradually into the pose.

With about ten seconds of pulling, I was noticing something strange. No matter how far into the bend she got, there was no strain and no resistance coming from her. She was almost like she was actually made of rubber, instead of the nickname 'Rubber girls' which people occasionally gave to extremely flexible contortionists.

"Stop there," She said, and I let go of her wrists. She then squirmed a little bit so she was comfortable, but not in any way out of the pose.

I took a step back and couldn't believe what I saw. Not only were her head and shoulders through her legs, but also her chest and some of her waist. I stared dumbfounded at the extreme stretch I just helped her with, but because of the angle I was at, only she could see my look.

"You can go down now," She told me happily, "Thanks for your help. In fact, I'd like to meet you backstage in my dressing room after the show, if you don't mind."

"No, I don't mind," I happily said as I skipped down the stairs and into my chair.

I didn't take any notice of her flexibility during the rest of her performance, as I didn't care. This was just a small preview, and I knew that her true limits were going to be revealed after the performance with me.