Circus Princess

Marina's training as a schoolgirl ^^

In the USSR during the totalitarian regime of Joseph Stalin, everything was just perfect and if you weren't perfect then you'd be sent to concentration camps. Under the pressure of Communist ideals people managed to do incredible things, developing unbreakable spirits and bodies.

The circus life wasn't any easier, the performers had to risk their lives to prove that they're not earning their piece of bread just for fooling around. And they had to prove it several times a day usually.

Contortionism for one became very popular among the circus kids: if started early, learning to bend wasn't that difficult. Doing the bendy poses upon a small table seemed very difficult to the inexperienced audience, but in fact wasn't that hard or risky in comparison with other circus arts.

Because of this, contortion was one of the safest circus specialties and soon way too many kids went into it, rather than into animal taming or aerial acrobatics.

Of course, the Communist Party officials eventually noticed that even though the contortions are impressive to watch, still somehow the performers tend to work too effortlessly, it almost looked like they're relaxing on the stage! Eventually someone wrote a note to Stalin, asking to do something about contortionists. Stalin wrote a short answer: "They should put more effort into it."

And thus, the era of extreme contortion had began. All the performers who weren't hyperflexible enough were dismissed, and all the trainers of contortion had to get their instructions directly from the KGB headquarters. The coaches who weren't strict enough were sent to concentration camps, while the best coaches formed a special committee which had the responsibility to examine all performers in the Soviet Union according to the new standards.

The new standards were so high that some of the pupils quit immediately, but those who truly loved this art, they remained to reach much greater heights. After the international contortion exams, only about 10-15% of contortionists kept their jobs. Only those who were ready to bend their backs as passionately as the farmers in the fields.

Luckily for Marina, she was one of the hard workers, given a lot of natural talent for flexibility she worked to improve it to the perfection. Ever since she was a little girl, she'd get up early and stretch a lot in the morning before school. She loved to show off her flexibility between lessons and even during the lessons she'd always sit in her chair facing backwards and then twist her torso 180 degrees to pretend she's sitting just normally. That exercise gave her spine and muscles an extended long-term stretch that she could hold during the entire lesson. Of course, immediately after school she'd run straight to the circus to get to the main part of her training.

She'd only get back home in the evening but even on her way home she'd often run into her many friends who always had a challenge or two for her flexibility skills that she was always ready to show off right in the street.

In the end with so much dedication she of course survived the evil exams and became one of the honored Soviet contortionists. In her 20s she naturally started to loose some of her flexibility and assumed the role of a coach herself, and started training younger contortionists:

Training them much in her own image XD