The Impressive and Inspiring Movement/Strength/Flexibility/Dance Thread

[Pat (pogo69)]

14 hours ago, Jim Pickles said:

move like a cat, and not like a dog.

I can't imagine being able to get either of our dogs to do that.  But I'm keen to try!

It is only obliquely related, but this reminded me of:

[Kit_L]

Show me a video where a cat has been trained to do this, and I really will be impressed!

We have to remember though a member who used to post here who managed to train his cat Phrine to do wall handstands.

Great video, Jim, and the Pink Panther theme BG music is priceless!

[Pat (pogo69)]

Magic Flow from AragoRn Boulanger.

Thought it may have already been shared here, but couldn't find it.  Worth watching again, regardless.

[Kit_L]

22 hours ago, pogo69 said:

Worth watching again, regardless.

Extraordinary; thanks.

[Pat (pogo69)]

Saw this on the Ancestral Movement Facebook group.  So many may have already seen it.

But worth a re-post here:

 

[Tijntje]

I just love to watch Kaycee Rice perform choreography by Zoi Tatopoulos 👽

 

 

 

[Jim Pickles]

FYI, novel methods of strength training, by Stefani Milliinger-Milli, from Austria.

 

 

[Nathan]

Easy back warmup... 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGh_tYNhQFk/

 

[Jim Pickles]

If anyone hasnt seen this impressive stretch instruction video, I suggest you give it a go now:
 

Jim.

[Tijntje]

 

Mesmerising! And amazing active flexibility 👌

[Pat (pogo69)]

7 hours ago, Tijntje said:

Mesmerising!

He is incredible!

[Kit_L]

Lovely. 

[MarkusO]

I'll just leave this here, I haven't seen anything like it. 😐

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CbSonBhLdbR/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

[Jim Pickles]

That's Aleksei Goloborodko, who is of course incredibly flexible. He however performs with a very feminine style, which apparently means many places wont employ him (and I dont like his style either). As you see in this video, his shoulders are resting on his legs, so the weight of the bar is taken on his shoulders and legs, not his spine.

[Kit_L]

@Jim Pickles: what do you mean, "He however performs with a very feminine style"? Can you link to an example? 

[Jim Pickles]

@Kit_L

Here's an early one, which most likely shows his "natural" style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIepgGt4ZHQ&list=PLv7omAZDZ_niCPbN04hikW--wiZlKZ4rR

They tried to train him to be more masculine, but with limited effect, e.g.:

Does it matter? Every performance is an act of communication between the performer and audience, and for that they need a shared language and a shared set of assumptions. Alexsei leaves us confused. Is he trying to act feminine, or is he just that way? Is he trying to show is that he is gay or not? Is he or isnt he? For a male contortionist who shows a wiry masculine flexibility search videos of Jonathan Nosan (who by the way is openly gay). The set of assumptions of the audience depends on the audience the performance is targeted at: a mainstream traditional circus will expect an audience to come with one set of assumptions, an alternative circus will expect different assumptions and maybe expect those assumptions to be challenged, in a way a traditional audience would not.

A performer often aims to have a strong effect on the audience by emphasising the characteristics of their gender. This is strongly seen in classical ballet. Women are traditionally seen as less strong than men, and to move more gracefully (rightly or not). Classical ballet emphasises this in the way women move on stage. On the other hand, men are seen as more muscular and vigorous, and are given the big leaps and lift the women. Their fouettes are done with the lifted leg straight, because they can use the greater strength and size of their arms and shoulders to drive themselves round, while women in a fouette bring the leg into retire each turn to drive themselves round, emphasising the (wider) hip area and de-emphasing their smaller shoulder girdle. I know we go on about gender equality, but gender roles, and emphasising them, are rampant in performing. So a female contortionist will commonly do smooth flowing movements, maybe with an erotic emphasis, while a male one will often emphasise wiry strength and muscularity. The males who do not, often go for a comic role, often in the old music hall days dressed as a frog.

If you want to see an example of female implicit (actually, not so implicit) eroticism in female contortion go to this video of Magdalena Stoilova (who I had the honour of assisting) and go to the section around 5:20 - 5:40 to see what one fellow (male) contortionist a described as "a flirtatious autoerotic style". I cant imagine a male doing a movement like that.

Clearly, from the length of my answer, and being involved in the periphery of contortion, its something I think about.

Of course, its not only in the performing arts such as these. I dont suppose you ever watch commercial television, but if you do, in the advertisements the women are commonly seen touching themselves (e.g. hand to cheek), stroking their arms, applying lotion to their skin, etc, with sensual feeling. The men are depicted as holding power tools. OK, the advertisers may break out sometimes and show a woman holding a paintbrush, but that is the limit! (and a paintbrush has a soft end and needs to be used with a stroking movement!).

[Kit_L]

I don't watch any television, but I am a keen observer of humans, and as you know from my background in ABC film and TV, a keen observer of performers, too. 

I watched the first clip you linked to, and I note that he is 12 or 13 years old at the time. He looks like a child, and seems genderless. 

His performance in the second clip seems neutral to me, though, with respect to what we are discussing. He seems male, is strong enough to do a one-armed handstand, and beautifully flexible, but nothing more. I see no playing to the audience there.

I watched your protegés clip too, and I can see her playing to the audience, but this has no, or little effect, on my appreciation of her physical capacities, contortion-wise. But it could also be that I have worked a very long time to try to apprehend things as they are (no expectations, in other words, but more like, 'what's happening now?'). This has changed how I experience performances, to a marked extent.

I do get the point you are making, but I experience the performances differently, I expect, and a part of that at least is that I am not involved in contortion. Thanks sincerely for your elaborations.

 

[Jim Pickles]

@Kit_LWell, the essence of performance is the communication of emotion - this is why performers do it. One has to be alive to that aspect of the performers, and some performers are better at communicating emotion via their body than others. Because I am "into performance" I try to be very alive to this aspect. However, at the same time, because I have seen so much contortion and am involved in physical training, I am seeing it as a purely physical activity - seeing the body almost as though I can look through the skin, and see the bones, the ligaments, and the muscles, and what they are doing. Certainly I am looking at what muscles they must be using at any point in time. All this is about as emotional as looking at an anatomy book. But, as someone who attempts to perform himself, I try to stay alert to and learn from the performance and emotional aspects of the performance, and study the movement cues the performers use to achieve their aims.

[Jim Pickles]

I dont know if this is Impressive or Inspiring (as in thread title), or the reverse, but I thought I'd add a couple of publicity shots I've just been sent by Australia's Got Talent, ahead of my appearance (very brief) tonight (Channel 7, 7.30 pm).

[Nathan]

@Jim Pickles Awesome! I bet that was fun! Please share the video too if it ends up on YouTube or something 

[Jim Pickles]

@Nathan - only a few fragments were shown unfortunately.