Bending over backward
Interview with Battseren Namsrai
By Oyunzul Munkhdelger
(translation: Oyuntuya Munkhdelger / Riccardo M. Ghia)
Battseren Namsrai’s body bends fully backwards as if she has no bones, drawing rounds of applauses by an ecstatic audience. And it’s just the beginning.
Battseren leans her mouth on a small support grip while her body is still in a backbend fold.
This move, known as the “Marinelli bend,” transfers the weight of her entire body on her neck. At the end, she smiles as if her mouth and teeth are not aching.
“But it does hurt,” she admits.
Battseren is one of the backbenders who make audiences gaping in wonder around the world with the ancient art of Mongolian contortion.
Battseren, who will turn 35 this year, began her training in 1985. She was just nine years old, yet she says it was quite a late start for a contortionist.
“Other children usually start when they are 7 years old. And now the age to start has become even younger, 5 or 6,” she says.
For Battseren, contortion was a first-sight love. After watching a contortion performance on TV, she decided to become a contortionist herself.
Maybe it was destiny. Maybe it was in her blood: one of her cousins is a contortionist too. But it wasn’t easy.
“The training requires a lot of patience. It is very hard,” she says. “When I was young I had a lot of fear and was often nervous. The first two, three years were the worst. Sometimes I would miss my training sessions on purpose. More than once, I thought that I should have given up.”
But performing in front of audiences boosted her morale. She didn’t give up.
In the beginning, she performed with Tsengelmaa, another contortionist, as a pair, under the watchful eye of their teacher, Ms. Norovsambuu.
“We had only one table and we started practicing in a very traditional style. Then, we formed a group of four with other two other girls in Germany. We performed together for over 10 years. Five years ago I started contorting alone.”
Contortion requires not only unhuman pliability, but also graceful dancing and spectacular choreography.
“Choreography in contortion was not as much important as it is today,” she says. “Now, people want more unique and interesting entertainments and therefore, circuses want to show more varieties of performances. We used to do the only basic elements before, but now in order to make the performance more interesting and entertaining we have to dance and act.”
In 1995, Battseren and other three young contortionists decided to perform in a new style that applies dancing and modern music and had been highly appreciated by foreign audiences.
“We performed together for over ten years in various places, including a number of famous theatres in Europe. The audiences were really interested in our performances, so I think it was a right step to take. But it does not mean that we would ignore or would not follow the traditional elements.”
Her solo and group performance won recognitions and awards around the world. In 1991, Battseren and Tsengelmaa were given a special award in a competition held at the Verona Arena, Italy, in 1991.
Seven years later, she won the top award at a competition in Paris where she performed together with other three contorsionists. The quartet, which also won a special award in Montecarlo, had also been selected as one of the top ten performers at an international Variety TV show in Germany.
Germany is the foreign country where Battseren performed most often. The biggest show she has ever been was in Friedrichstadtpalast, Berlin. About 2500 people attended her performance.
But her favourite place was South Lake Tahoe, in the United States.
“It has very beautiful nature and great ski resorts,” she says.
Now, Battseren lives in Ulaanbaatar in the Bayanzurkh district on the top floor of a three-storey house with her parents and her daughter, a three-year-old pretty girl with a cheeky expression and a big mouth.
Battseren juggles between her family, her job and her studies. She will graduate in linguistics from a Mongolian university next year.
“I haven’t planned any performances this year yet. I might perform in Spain in August. At the moment, I am giving priority to my studies,” she says with a soft, clear voice. “I won’t be able to tour and perform for a while. I am just performing from time to time when I get a few days off from school.”
Sain Bainuu 