 My name is Abaduot Udo. I'm from Nigeria. Born in Lagos. I grew up in Orishniki. Since then I've been little. And I discovered what I can do right now from a particular movie I watched. That's Twin Mission. And from that movie, I blend myself to the people I saw, the actors I saw from that movie, which I have not seen that kind of people before. So from there, I started, it was like, they were doing some kind of move. And at that moment, by the way, Dlinix, I said I should try this. I've never seen something like this before. And at that very moment, I said, I tried it. I did it. Contortion, sometimes referred to as contortionism, is an art that's not very popular in Nigeria. Sam and Blessin are contortionists in Lagos who hone their skills from constant practice and watching videos on YouTube. So from there, I started pushing. Then I pushed into dance from there till I grew up. I still didn't know what I was doing, other as well, until six, seven years back, then I had to start doing research on it. From there, I didn't know what I am doing. Then I started working on it professionally, taking it very serious, taking it to a very high stage too. From what I've been doing, from time come to now, I've been watching videos on YouTube and other ways I can actually learn from. So that way, I've been learning. Then some of my friends, which I work with right now, they came to me and I actually teach them. So for me teaching them, I have to go work more on myself. I have to go watch more videos to improve so I can teach them. So that way, I've been learning by myself until when, 2019, that was when I went for a yoga class, a yoga school, and I got satisfied from being a yoga teacher, yoga instructor. So aside from that school, there has been no other school. Once I come up on stage, I connect with the whole space entirely. I connect with everything around me, even the sand, the water, more or less the demanding. I make sure I connect down to the hearts of anybody watching me. Nigeria as a whole, I also, it's me, number one. I come the best. So from there, I've made income from it, and I build up a group. Thereby, if I have a job, I don't even want to go for the job, eat the page, no kitchen, and I bring up the new generations, which are just starting, and I send them out. Most times, if I fall sick, I fall very sick, type of malaria and all, I fall sick. I still make sure, if nobody is at home, I put on my sound, and I do movements in the room. With that, where I sweat everything out, I get better at it, and I probably go out, but laugh at something cool. Then with that, I can beat off my sickness. However, if I have a job, I'm falling sick, and I just hear about the job. If they are paying me or not, I just make sure I go for the job, eat off the stage, connect with people. So that way, me connecting with people, I'm dragging more energy. So that one builds me up again. I'm even sick at that moment. I don't get sick again. Or if I should have a particular injury, like presently I'm having an injury, which I'm not supposed to do any time at all, but when it comes to me performing, I don't see myself as an entertainer. I don't entertain. I perform. I do act with my own work. But most contention is they want to entertain. They also want to make sure you stay aware of what they are doing. But me, once I come up on stage, I don't even want to hear any noise. I also want a quiet space. I do my thing. Then again, you can give me whatever comments you want to give me. So I've not broken any bones before. Not even... Normally I dislocate my joints. So all I've been doing is dislocation, dislocation. So the injury I can just get is from muscles. When I strain the muscle, I go extremely out of the act. So I've only had just two. The first one was my shoulder. And the second one is the nail, which I'm having now. Because that's why I say when I'm on stage, the space I'm in, it can put so much energy in me. I even want to take more off my head or take my head off my body. So if I'm performing on this stage where I'm at, the energy I'm picking from that stage is building me home. I want to do something very, very, very crazy. Which I've not even practiced before. So it's more like I'm going into this spirit ray. Into somewhere else that is just black. And I just do things extremely out of the act. The extreme I've done was twisting my neck to the back. Then I used to have... I do this triple fold. That's the back bend. You have to triple fold. You fold like twice with your back bend. But I have to stop doing that because I've seen too many people doing it. And I want to create my own style. I don't come up on stage and I do something and they'll be like, this one can do it. This one can do it. Because it's still the same transition you use in going into it. You do something that's the transition you barely see it around. You watch multiple videos. You have these scenes. It's very rare to see. So that's why I have to cut off some moves from what I do. I do a whole lot of moves before. To make sure I entertain people then way back. Then when I have to now start noticing myself what I can do. How more I can reach out to my skills then I have to just cut out some moves and start working on my own moves. Creating my own skills for myself. More like the rocket move in Nigeria now, presently. I'm the only one. Though there are others now coming up as well trying to get their own rockets and start doing. And some of them will still come up to me and teach me this particular move and I'll still teach them. So there will still be a time where if I say that okay, they have gotten it off to that level. I'll drop that and move into another one. So because they've gotten the next twist to level a hair. I can't do it again. I can't go any further than that. I have to leave it for them. So it's only when I have this kind of audience like if I have a performance for a particular program and they'll ask me for to perform like five times five different times for one event and I can't come up with another move for the next performance. I can't come up with another move for the third one. So that's how I just break down my moves. Then probably the last performance that's where I can come up with the next twist and I have to work out for it. Then I just go up and twist. So I have to do a one week next stretch to stretch the muscle for one week straight. I'm ready to just twist it out. Go for me to build more like a cycles in Nigeria. Bring that to Nigeria. There are people doing it cycle cycles. It's just more like a show. They're just doing it and they call it a cycle show. A cycle show is not supposed to be something you all do once in a year. It's supposed to be something you do like every weekend in the year. So what I'm looking at from five to ten years from now is that I bring cycles into Nigeria. When it comes to contortion most people, they mistake contortion for dance. They don't be like, what do you do? I'll say I'm a contortionist. I'll be like, oh dancer, I'll say no. I'm a contortionist. And I'll still be wanting to be like explaining what is different from contortion and you being a dancer. So I have to now start breaking it down to them that this is contortion. This is dance. Though it still looks more alive like when may I come up on stage I move to music. Some potentially they don't have that musicality. They just do. Make sure people shout. But me, I just make sure I come up on stage. I have that musicality. So that's why when some people see me perform mine, they call it dance. It's not dance, it's contortion. So when I call mine contortion act so it's an act I'm just portraying to people. But before I made the lesson, I've just known six, seven contortionists. Before I made the lesson I've known just six, seven contortionists which have worked with and I didn't work with all of them. I met few of them in a competition whereby they see me. They just see that somewhere I've come that we even want to leave the competition for me. But I'll be like, oh what is it? Is it not the same same thing that they see me and they still want to run away from me? Same thing to bless them. We met at one show then then from that show I saw her. She was the first female contortionist I've seen like I've traveled Nigeria I've seen contortionist but she was the first one I've seen that was different from older females. Hi, my name is Miss Okute Blessing Uche I'm 21 years old I was born January 7th in the year 2000 I'm a student of Lagos State University or Joc Campus 200 levels I'm actually studying physical and health education I studied with about six years ago and I was seeing this movie, Our Strength it's about this teacher a dance teacher actually so I was teaching our students artists' cleats and then to carry their legs up so they know what they can do with their bodies so I decided to start on my own too and to start stretching I would always stretch my pillow it got to a point whereby my pillow wasn't spacious enough for me so I had to go to this place opposing my compound to a spacious so I took my dad's mirror because he used to be a baba he had a salon so I took his mirror there and then I would always practice alone in that place Do you want to say it's profitable? It has been profitable because I was able to use this money I get from the shows I do and the concert I go for for my school bills and other bills I have to pay it's actually helping me to take care of some other things too but I'm not where I want to be right now I'm not getting what I want right now because I want more to every lady that wants to be a gymnast or a confessionist should know that it's painful and whatever you put your mind into you're going to achieve it One thing that helped me to get this far is my consistency and my fast consistency I was always training sometimes I go out training for like three to four hours every day most times I train in the night stretching in the night before I go to bed my mom always be like blessing blessing blessing you're not a boy you're not a boy always acting like a boy and be like mommy just stopped us come out of it this is what I like to do most of the challenges in what I do is that whenever I go to the bar to perform or any concerts men are always my challenges like they just keep coming at me because they feel because I stretch too well because my hip flexors are very very flexible and because my backs are very flexible and I bend into some other shapes and some different kind of shape they think because I'm very flexible like that on the stage I'm going to be that flexible on the bed they even go as far as touching me aximi stops like I'm not very nice I'm not for short time I be like sorry I'm my sex worker sometimes I fight them sometimes I insult them sometimes I talk to them anyhow but I can't keep doing all that too I just find a way to maneuver them we asked myself five years from now actually in five in three years time I should be done with my school my B.S.S. certificate then last year I intend traveling after that I intend going to the U.S. New Orleans precisely actually I'm actually mailing a mail to them to know if I can for them out there and then to be a professional gymnast competing and representing my country in Nigeria