We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nikelola Balogun. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nikelola below.
Nikelola, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
For the most part, I try not to “should ” myself with the infamous “shoulda”, “coulda”, “woulda” mentality because really, what good does it do? All it really does is put us through the unnecessary mental torture of going back in time, agonizing over how much MORE skilled or knowledgeable we’d be in the present if things had been done differently OR if we’d started earlier so… that’s where I stand. However, for the sake of this question, HELLZ TO THE YEAH, I wish I had started my contortion journey earlier. Dude! I “would ” be so friggin’ amazing now. Like, Cirque du Soleil level! (🙄You see why thinking this way is sooo counterproductive?).
Okie dokes folks, my contortion origins story started circa 2012 while living in Seoul, Korea. Keep in mind, I’ve always had an athletic background prior. I was a runner since childhood, which lead to joining a youth track club, leading to excelling city-wide, then placing state-wide and eventually landing a full-athletic scholarship to Tulane University, where I continued to excel and EVEN had the pleasure of running at the NCAA’s indoor competition in the 4x400m relay. My specialties were the 200m and 400m; I loved running and running was my life. The adrenaline was such a rush and there’s absolutely no comparison to the way competing made me feel. I continued running track 5 or so years after graduating university, however eventually the toll training took on me mentally and physically was a lot to manage, so I stopped running Track & Field and focused more on recreational distance running: 5ks, 10ks, half & full marathons. This continued for about 8 more years, even while I was living in Seoul, where I moved to in 2010.
Anyway, I was unfulfilled as an athlete and desired more of a challenge, that’s when I tried a Bikram yoga 😬 for the first time, recommended to me by my then boyfriend. After the first class I was so astounded by how flexible this one group of women in the front of the class were. That amazement turned into envy and I felt the urge for competitiveness quickly surface. “How are they so nimble and why was I so stiff?”, I wondered. It was baffling and I was determined to figure out their secret. So, naturally I did a bit of research to solve this mystery because my ego would NOT allow for me to go back to that class as an inflexible piece of wood. Curse all those years of not stretching as a runner!!! Interestingly enough, my web surfing and research around yoga, flexibility, etc produced a peculiar yet fascinating answer to my question. Well, at least I thought it was at the time. I stumbled upon this old, dusty and crusty contortionist handbook that looked like it was something birthed from the 1970s, possibly even out of the stone age! (Take a gander if you dare —> https://wandererstraining.com/tchb/). Anyhoo, as outdated as it was, my interest was definitely piqued after seeing humans bend and fold in ways I’d never imagined and had only seen done by olympic rhythmic gymnasts or circus performers: Front bending, back bending in half? Holy, cannoli! My mind was blown AND at that instant, I knew THAT was what I wanted to learn. So it was then that my contortion journey began.
Looking back now, the advice from that handbook, errrrrr, probably wasn’t the best to follow. I definitely do NOT recommend this as a place to start. There are so many advancements in contortion training catering to adults nowadays and I say this ESPECIALLY if you’re starting later in life as an adult AND are inexperienced. Ha, ha I’m actually surprised I never injured or pulled anything from following that handbook but I was super careful and attuned to my body which is super important as with any other discipline. I do recommend if you are interested in contortion, to please seek counsel from a coach or professional FIRST before attempting any poses or tricks AS contortion IS NOT YOGA and definitely needs supervision and guidance. (👆🏾OF COURSE I HAD TO ADD A DISCLAIMER, PEEPS!).
In conclusion if I “would” have started training contortion 15 years earlier, not only would I be a MORE advanced in my craft along with hand balancing today, but I would also have been able to take advantage of the different types of training earlier on along with all of the services and artistic jobs opps that are available today that weren’t available then or I just wasn’t aware of. As it stands today I would categorize myself as an intermediate contortionist and feel I have another 5 years of training to reach my bendy goal, possibly the same for my hand balancing. So much has changed in the world of contortion. Contrary to earlier beliefs, you don’t have to start as a child, though it is VERY helpful AND easier when you’re younger as your joints aren’t fully formed and your body is more pliable. There are a lot of pros and cons to starting as a child vs. an adult but I would say ease is the main advantage in my opinion. I also started as an adult and foresee continuing as long as my body allows for me to do so. And at 44 years of age I only continue to see improvements, which is wild and exciting. Defying all the societal odds and expectations. Imagine that? Contorting this youthful bod IS keeping me Fabulously Fit and Fine in my Forties💪🏾!!! (Yes, I said that!🌻).
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Oh lah lah, the ‘Getting-to know-you’, part. Always fun. Welp, I have been an athlete with a strong competitive mindset ever since I was a wee lass. My parents told me I started running as a kindergartener. Oneday, there was some sort of sports day at my school and I was entered into a running event (couldn’t have been more than a 50m dash) and as the story goes, I took my MARK…SET…then left everyone in my DUST! Now, I personally don’t remember that race, but I do recall having my first race in 6th grade (which I lost) then ran competitively in Jr. High (Yes, Jr. High is what it used to be called when I attended 😜). So the race I was referring to that I LOST, was as I mentioned when I was in 6th grade, elementary school at that time. I was recruited by a youth track coach, Jimmy Grant, (who I was referred to by my then P.E., as he saw I possessed some talent on the track) for a team called West Coast Express, which I actually ended up running for until I graduated high school. It was there where I was officially introduced to Track & Field AND ran in my first track meet. Naturally my ego was inflated by this recruitment so I went into that 200m race thinking I had it in the bag! I COULDN’T LOSE, however when I did, boy oh boy, I was absolutely devastated. How could I have lost? I lost because I was new to the sport, inexperienced and didn’t quite have the technique and endurance at the time, EVEN for a 200m. I didn’t know what I was doing. So I gave it all I got, running the race like it was 50m… and yikes did I pay for it. After about 50 meters, I had nothing left… I ran outta steam then tripped and fell over my jello, non-endurance having legs. I barely finished from exhaustion and pure embarrassment. NOT only was my body bruised but so was my ego and I renounced TRACK FOREVER!…. That is until some time went by, I got over it and got the running bug again. I started up again in 8th grade with more wisdom, 2 pieces of humble pie (so delicious and necessary😜😋) and was more receptive to doing what it takes to be the best athlete I could be. The ego had definitely been checked at the door this time around. So, I trained and trained and excelled, landing myself four, full athletic track scholarship offers from being scouted by my 400m performance at the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) Track & Field Championships during my Senior year in high school. THAT is what took my athletic abilities to new heights thus setting the tone of my mental fortitude and path. To be honest, without the foundation of track, I would not be the contortionist I am today. 🤔
It’s so funny how life works. Track & Field is what literally shaped me mentally and physically for contortion and ironically enough, it’s because of HOW it physically shaped me, the reason WHY I even started contortion.
Remember I mentioned I took a Bikram yoga class? It turns out that after some time of taking classes, before I actually started contortion, I ended up visiting a chiropractor because I had pain in my hips but didn’t know why. Later I found out that it was due to osteoarthritic hips, from all the years of wear and tear, training as a professional athlete (…and possibly from not stretching… like ever 😬?). Since I had never stretched properly until taking Bikram yoga, I didn’t even know I had osteoarthritis OR even the extent of how painful my chronic condition was. Running and doing everyday, mundane things actually NEVER triggered pain or gave me any indication of what was going on with my connective tissues, but once I started stretching, yowsers, things began to surface. The pain in my hips was so immense and intense that whenever I would do ANYTHING involving flexion, rotation and of course stretching beyond the capacity that my inflexibility had rendered, my lack of range of motion was alway a literal painful reminder of how I neglected stretching my bod 😭. However, because I had the athletic mindset to persevere instead of accepting defeat, I was compelled to find a solution. Did I mention I’m competitive and just LOVE a challenge? So, naturally I turned to contortion because it seemed to possess solutions not only for my inflexibility but also piqued my interest as a new discipline to embark on. It was at that time I also made the hard decision to switch my focus and stop running. Pffft, I tell ya’ this, believe it or not, I absolutely had no idea what I was doing or even getting myself into, but I am SO glad I made that choice.
After leaving Seoul, Korea and returning to Los Angeles in 2017, I continued to find platforms and communities in hopes of taking my new discipline to new heights. Because I was self-taught with mostly guidance from that dinosaur 🦖 manual and random blogs, it was frustrating and challenging road as I was learning and figuring out how to contort all on my own, which in retrospect was super inefficient and definitely hindered my training and progress. Fortunately, I ended up finding a Circus school called Kinetic Theory where contortion was taught under the tutelage of Stephanie Abrams. Such a new world that was for me. Circus performers and like-minded people all in one place I had never imagined existed. I was able to train and develop my skills applying actual technique from trained professionals, however my hips, unfortunately, severely interfered and held me back due to the excruciating pain that stretching them would cause whether it was involving using hip flexors or any internal or external rotation of the hips and EVEN compressing my knees to my chest was ridiculously painful. Like, what?!! Dude, I was a mess and frustrated because the HIPS are the soul and foundation of most contortion poses, I would say. It’s very frustrating when you feel alone in your pain and no one seems to have a solution. However, as any athlete would do, I continued pushing through despite the pain and endured it all.
Fast forward to Covid, frustrated by my hips hindering my progression, I was determined to find a solution and luckily I had the time to do so, as we were all quarantining in our homes. So, I experimented with active exercises along with myofascial release, trigger point therapy using a baseball and then implemented a sequence into my training which I followed religiously, twice a day for over 2 years. I was in beast mode! It was time to get serious and see results because prior to that I was training maybe 3-4 days a week, if that. My new training regimen had me training 7 days a week, being super focused and driven. Project Happy Hips was the goal. From this, I absolutely saw a reduction of hip pain thus improvement in my flexibility, however it wasn’t enough. I needed MORE help in order to achieve my contortion goals, but how? Once Covid had subsided, unfortunately, there were many business casualties from the aftermath, including KT so I had to search for a new place to train as training solo was only getting me so far. Online classes were popping up left and right at that time. Luckily, I found a wonderful contortion coach based out of Las Vegas, by the name of Otgo Waller (https://www.instagram.com/otgowaller/) and trained with her for a little over a year.
Training with Otgo was amazing, and I gained a wealth of knowledge under her tutelage, but I knew what I really needed was hands-on, in-person coaching especially since I was also working on hand balancing. Then, I remembered I had taken some classes at a place in Hollywood way back when, called Cirque School LA (https://www.instagram.com/cirqueschool/) , around the same time I was taking classes at KT. Since things were also opening back up and Cirque School had survived, I decided to sign up for private coaching AND was fortunate enough to reunite with a contortion coach from before, Ganchimeg Oyunchimeg (https://www.instagram.com/gana_contortion/) , who also just goes by Gana🙂. So our coaching began and she took my skills to a level beyond what I believed I was EVEN capable of. Gana has undeniably pushed me and taken my contortion and hand balancing to new heights. She is soooo amazing and I really am not sure where I’d be without her amazing skills, knowledge, tutelage and support. She has literally pushed me to be where I am today and boy it has sometimes been painful… in a good way, of course😅! I am so grateful for ALL of the coaches I’ve had over the years AND am especially proud of myself for pushing through EVEN when times were tough. Perseverance is GOLD, my friends! All in all, this contortion journey of mine has been life changing, to say the least. Not only have I learned so much about myself and how strong I am mentally and physically, I have met amazing humans along the way AND I have nearly reversed the effects of my osteoarthritic hips. Who knew what stretching could do? Can you believe it? An inflexible D-1 runner 🏃🏾♀️ TURNED noodly contortionist🧘🏾♀️.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
YES! I would absolutely have to mention that having osteoarthritic hips while continuing to literally push myself PHYSICALLY and MENTALLY through the pain IS an absolute testament to my resilience. All those who know me and my journey as a contortionist, DEFINITELY know the pain I was experiencing and managing for many years. It has been a very trying road that has tested me many, many times BUT I was able to persevere. Even with all of the hard work I have put into healing and managing my osteoarthritis thus far, just last summer I had a weird flare up that rendered me again in excruciating pain AND this time coupled with severe inflammation. It was something new that I had never experienced from what I was used to. As my track record has shown, instead of throwing in the towel, I turned to an acupuncturist for intervening tactics which helped tremendously and also taught me other ways to implement healing and calming techniques for my hips post training. Because of the knowledge my acupuncturist imparted, I started icing and heating my hips after every training and it absolutely worked. To this day, I continue to ice my hips post training AND I am confident that this is what’s keeping my body strong and healthy from all the intense stress I put this awesome temple through daily. I can happily and gratefully say that today, my hips are beyond the healing and flexibility range I EVER thought they’d get to. All because I didn’t give up and was resilient when faced with challenges.💪🏾
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
To be honest, my goals are fluid and have changed over the course of my contortion journey and are STILL changing.
When I first started, I was very ego driven and just wanted to be bendy so I could show those girls in that Bikram class a thing or two! Oh the ego and how it drives us, right?🤪 Then, after discovering I had osteoarthritic hips, the goal was to find solutions to heal or reverse my osteoarthritis so that I could have a better quality of life AND be a better athlete. After witnessing the positive effects of contortion and how it was literally healing my body, my goals shifted as I saw the importance and benefits of stretching as a whole. Stretching NOT ONLY reversed MY chronic osteoarthritis but also reduced my pain, aided in injury prevention and IS what’s keeping my body youthful and flexible among other benefits. I want to find ways to impart all of my knowledge gained from my contortion journey onto others and share the benefits I experienced as I feel I am literally a walking advertisement of how general stretching for the everyday person does the body good. And today, that is where my goal remains.
Contortion is not only of great importance in my life, it has changed my life in so many ways and I keep bending so that I can motivate and hopefully inspire those around me. I am also very proud to say that I have recently started performing and actually had my first recital at Cirque School LA, June 29th & 30th. I had never thought of performing (though that is LITERALLY the point as a contortionist 🤪🤣) prior to that because I have a lot of performance anxiety and have always doubted my abilities, however Gana gave me a gentle nudge, along with some literal contortion pushes for encouragement. And you know what, I’m so glad I was able to work through my nerves and showcase the talent that I work so hard on. I can definitely say that going forward, I now WANT to and WILL continue to explore more of the performance side. Wish me luck🍀! Oh, and this may be self promoting, but why the heck not?! If you know of anyone that is looking for a CONTORTIONIST for special events, functions, do NOT hesitate to look me up🙃!!! –> (https://www.instagram.com/nikelolabalogun/)
A few last takeaways…
Stretching is for ANYBODY with ANY BODY. Going forward, I’d like to be the bridge for the everyday hooman to be flexibly strong, thus improving their overall physical performance, health, quality of life AND at the very least impart knowledge I’ve gained over the years about how invaluable STRETCHING and overall MOBILITY is, no matter how many trips you’ve taken around the sun ☀️. I can’t ‘stretch’ that enough 🙂.
Happy stretching my bendy peeps. Sending vibes and thank you for allowing me to share my story🌻
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nikelola.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikelolabalogun/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com//Flxi.K.nX
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikelolabalogun/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/flxi.k.nx/
https://www.instagram.com/nikelola_balogun/
Image Credits
Monique Wise 🌻
Carlos Salazar 🌻
Me (Nikelola Balogun) 🌻