“If there is only one truth I have found in myself, it is the voracious need I have for stretching and balancing my body.  Mongolian Contortion practice is the purest joy I have ever experienced. It is the only remedy for me. Feeling energy extend past my limbs and the peaceful concentration of my mind as I strive to embody precise alignment… I never seem to get enough.  I spend all of my waking hours, all of my dreaming hours, every tick of time I can embracing this most beautiful art form.

Serchmaa Byambaa has illuminated my soul by sharing this secret of Mongolia with me.  Her ethereal talent and happiness are expressed through her every movement.  Her teaching technique shares not only a slice of traditional art, world knowledge and experience, but also a glimpse into the life of an artist who has achieved beyond our realm of body & mind awareness.

She has been my only contortion teacher and I owe her my blossoming performing career. As a toddler, my darling mother introduced me to classical dance(ballet, jazz, tap, theater..) and artistic gymnastics. I traveled and performed these disciplines throughout my youth. Later, as a young woman struggling to reinvent myself, I tried returning to these past loves, but found no peace.  However, at the dawn of my twenties I reached for something more obscurely beautiful.  I began working under Serchmaa at the age of 21.  By then I was 8 years out of practice in any physical ability and lost as an artist.

Within a year, she taught me how to move through split and back bend positions, sit on my head, and balance on my hands. Her belief in me and willingness to push my limits opened my doors of perception.
I see her give this exuberant energy to all of her students.  She is the most magnificent dream weaver.
My goals as a contortionist are simple compared to what she has achieved and shared.  In my twist of classical Eastern dance & Mongolian Contortion, I hope to enchant audiences with sleek, charismatic movement garnished with a smile.  I want to posses peculiar powers of extraordinary posture as a cheerful cheeky character. To find myself beneath circus tents and upon starlit stages across this planet. Most of all, to make my mom and Serchmaa proud of the beautiful art they have shared with me.”

via. iNKa Siefker

iNKa Siefker

First off I’d like to say THANK YOU for all of your support! Our Kickstarter campaign is off to a great start! We would like to thank our first round of backers!

THANK YOU!

Helga

Kelly

Mona

Seher

Chris

Jump! Theatre

Ann

Ema

Jennifer

These few pics (the little girls above and Lance below) are from our second Clean Socks Show.

Just in case you are just now joining us what is going on is that as a group we are asking for support to complete our project. This round of funding is for completing the filming and still photography, all of the work so far has been done on a donation basis but in order for us to continue on a professional level and complete the documentary project in a timely fashion, we are reaching out through Kickstarter. What we are doing with the Kickstarter funding is going to Mongolia to complete the filming of the movie as well as accomplish numerous amounts of specially designed photographs in  the Mongolian landscape with both American contortionists and Mongolian contortionists. We have an entire team assembled, a project continually being worked on, but also on pins and needles…

Basically it is my understanding that you go to Mongolia one time a year and that time of year is the end of June to the end of July- In order to complete the project and gather all of the footage, interviews, and photographs we must get to Mongolia in just a few months.

If you have a moment, please share this with your friends- if anything, they will find it enjoyable- but hopefully they will be inspired to share it with their friends as well- you never know who is next to the person looking at the screen….

Lot’s of people are sharing the link on FaceBook and Twitter which is great, Thank You! Please keep it up, any little bit helps- especially with the amount of stuff we all SEE online every day, it is quite easy to pass over something by accident. Another great thing to know is that right on the Kickstarter page there are both Facebook and Twitter SHARE links that you can use as many times as you like- I generally change the text a little bit myself. If you would like to share images instead of links, comment on this post and I will help you out!

How can you be involved?

:GEEK Stuff:
Easy: Click this link to check out our website Clean Socks
Minor Upgrade: “Like” our facebook page, and follow @faernworks on twitter to get all the updates

Show The Love: Go through and click “like” on all of our facebook pics
Wait…: Share them too

Below will really help us with our Kickstarter campaign

:Extra Geek Stuff:
ON FACEBOOK Use the words “Clean Socks” next to “Contortion” in reference to our project so that it falls on the greater contortion page on facebook.
Go to the Clean Socks Project facebook and youtube pages and TWEET the posts about our project, the pics, youtube videos- whatever catches your eye really.

:The Triple Geek:
1. Tweet about us using any or all of: #kickstarter #cleansocksproject #contortion #sanfrancisco #mongolia : and a link to our website, if possiblehttp://cleansocksproject.org/
2.On tumblr? COMMENT on this post and I will provide an image to tumbl or FOLLOW ‘FaernSpan’ on there and you will easily be able to “reblog” from there.
3.ADD our posts to Stumble Upon

It was very important to me that anyone that wanted to be involved could do so. In order to support that idea, we made the possible donation as low as $1~> really, any little bit counts- thanks so much!

Just in case you didn’t know, you can find us on Facebook:  here is our page

~*~

“Clean Socks” is a feature-length documentary about Mongolian contortion and tells the story of one of the best Mongolian contortionists in the world, Serchmaa Byamba, and her student Lance. The story takes place both in Mongolia and the United States of America. We started this documentary project when two of Serchmaa’s students, Lance and Kristina, followed her to Mongolia to experience the culture and learn where Serchmaa Byamba’s teacher first started training in contortion art.

After graduating from the University of Film Art in Mongolia, Tsogtbayar Namsrai moved to the United States to further his education. He worked as an interpreter until he finished school in San Francisco, CA. He translated numerous stage plays from both Mongolian to English and vice versa. One of the plays he translated from Mongolian to English was selected to be staged at the “Hoorah” Chicago-based stage play event.

Click Here to go to our Kickstarter page

We are going to introduce a Mongolian boy, who is also training to be a Contortionist in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In most circus areas and genres it is widely believed that in order to become a successful and professional circus performer, one has to start from very early age. Which has a truth in it, especially in Contortion, because with children as young as 4 or 5 years old, their bones and joints are still soft and teachers and instructors can push their body to it’s maximum flexibility, but with adults with their already formed bone structure, if it is pushed without a limit, it often times just breaks. Serchmaa Byamba believed this theory until she moved to America.

Her teaching career started when some business man decided to take a chance with up and coming Contortionists to choreograph a Contortion act with 21 people. Serchmaa accepted the offer and searched young children to train for the 21 Tara act. After moving to San Francisco, CA, Serchmaa performed in many different circus shows and events, but after settling in San Francisco, she decided to stay and only perform in local events where it close to her family and pursue her teaching.

Circus Center grabbed this opportunity of having a traditional Mongolian Contortion instructor in San Francisco, and with Serchmaa accepting the job, the circus school added Mongolian style contortion classes on the schedule. To Serchmaa’s surprise, many adults signed up for her class and after a few days trial, Serchmaa new that it was different when working with adults and based on her experience working with children, she modified her teaching methods and designed a brand new program for adults and their flexibility.

Serchmaa Byamba maintains the classic training technique passed from her teacher but encourages her students to ‘own the movements’ themselves and create their own style. As a world renowned performer and trained by the founder of contemporary contortion- Serchmaa brings not just technique but a perspective on living that she passes on. She feels the greatest thing she can give students is not just flexibility but a positive change in their life and attitude towards living it. She also believes contortion is something that can physically benefit anyone, that is can be practiced safely and easily, she wants to open contortion up to everyone who is inspired and interested by it. The techniques passed from her teacher are beneficial to all kinds of people with all kinds of goals.

Many of her students started performing and seeing the results have completely changed Serchmaa’s opinion about training with adults. She was very impressed with her students’ determination and will to learn to be a performer. One these students is Lance.

Click Here to go to our Kickstarter page

The art of contortion has long history in Mongolia. When people imitated animal’s movements and placed them into performance acts, contortion was born in Mongolia. After becoming a socialist country Mongolian Contortion became part of the Circus genre and the very first traveling circus assembled the official Contortion training.

Contortion is called Uran Nugaralt in Mongolian, meaning Artistic bending. Our Clean Socks logo has the ancient Mongolian script saying those exact words.

Faern is creating the still photography for the Clean Socks documentary. She is well-qualified for this, as she has many years of photographing the body to her credit, as well as extensive studies in cultural anthropology. The documentary investigates Mongolian contortion and its development in the West by looking into teacher and student development. It also examines the cultural importance of a traditional Mongolian art form that is handed down through the children, and is now being taught to foreigners of all ages. From a proud lineage of artists this unique style is now taking a new shape in America. Faern is creating in-class and training images which shows a different side of the performer than might have been glimpsed before. These photographs capture a more raw, real person, the private side, and directly contrast with the more timeless and familiar images from the performances, where the character that they are portraying is a smooth drape over personal human emotion. All of the facets of the photographic portion of this project have been created in order to support the film documentary, but also represent a progression of images that stand on their own, and are both artistic and photo-journalistic in nature.

Many people ask why such interesting name for a documentary about such beautiful art, and you will find the answer in our film once it’s completed.

We will update the blog once a week with updates and  post some outtake or some interesting short videos from Lance’s trip to Mongolia three years ago.

Click Here to go to our Kickstarter page

How can I contact you?

Please feel free to send questions too: cleansocksproject@gmail.com

How do I keep track of what you guys are up to?

We do have a website Clean Socks Project Website where we will be posting interesting film snippets, photographs and student experiences. But also, come on over to our Facebook page: CleanSocksProject and share the love. We tweet, well, Faern does- All Clean Socks Project tweets will come from there~ go to twitter and find @faernworks

How can I be a part of the project?

For starters, you can make a donation- any little bit helps. In the upper right hand corner there is a button that says “back this project”, just click that. If you have  any problems, please let us know via the email above. Also sharing the project online and with your friends in person is helpful.

What happens if the money isn’t raised in time?

If the money isn’t raised on time, as with any Kickstarter project, we will not be able to properly proceed. But we will take each day as it comes

Why should you help us make this Documentary project?

Because like every cultural art form it is important that the Art of Mongolian Contortion is documented. We want to see a beautiful film about this subject just as much as you do and in order to accomplish this, we must get to Mongolia to make this movie. We must get back to the root and we all have the passion for the art as well as the access to the information to make this happen.

THANK YOU

Yes, YOU

Thank You for coming and supporting our venture!

Thank You for enjoying our show!

And most of all,

Thank You for loving the art of contortion!

Basically- the NEWEST thing you HAVE to know is to go to the YouTube!

Stay Tuned and get ready to Support through our Kickstarter venture-

The Art of Contortion NEEDS you…

please stay tuned…

via: Samantha Halas

“It all began with a focused admiration of Luis Carlos (aka Goido), love at first sight,
dancing capoeira in the streets of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. My heart pounded as I imagined
the fluidity with which he moved his body, flexible, strong, aware. It was not exactly him
that I loved but the physical prowess with which he moved, that which was unfathomable
to me. You could see through his movement a love so deep that it transcended pain and
difficulty. This love has followed me ever since as I began the long and grueling process
to become a Contortionist.

In Winnipeg at that time there were very few people who knew what contortion is and
none who practiced it. I remember thinking that if by living my life I was writing my own
novel then why not take a big risk for the sake of living the most spellbinding story. So
in 2007 I flew to the Beijing International Art School. It was the only school that would
accept me to practice contortion at my age and my inexperience, and they accepted
me not because they believed I would become a great contortionist, but because they
wanted money. At first the teachers were in general very disinterested in me, unless it
was to laugh my inept attempts. But with resilience I taught myself through watching
the children who practiced in the room with me. Finally with rigorous discipline and
many tears shed I had transformed myself and at the end of those 12 months I had even
attracted the attention of a few teachers who began helping me. The Chinese style is
based entirely on technique; the feats they accomplish bend the realities of our own most
powerful imaginations. They accomplish these things through extreme discipline, long
hours of training and repetitions of mind-boggling proportions. The downside however
is there is very little artistry, many of the performers hate the circus and wish for simple
things like to work in a restaurant.

Back in the western hemisphere I trained myself for countless hours, I felt inspired giving
Winnipeg something that people had never seen before. People would stop in their tracks
and drop their jaws because they never knew the human body could be capable of such
feats. If anybody knows about circus here usually it’s Cirque du Soleil, which in fact
represents only one style in the world of circus. I continued to feel drawn to the old and
more traditional styles. This is when I discovered the Mongolian Style of contortion and
Serchmaa Byamba, my coach and favorite contortionist of all time. The Mongolians,
particularly the classically trained ones move in a way so fluid, so graceful, that every
second framed would make a beautiful portrait head to toe. Every detail is finalized; the
pacing remains the same intoxicating controlled and languid movement throughout the
piece. The technique is incredibly high and yet the artistry is saturated throughout the
movements.

Through contortion I have found the most perfect love, I have plunged deeper and
deeper and found more and more profundity. Circus is excelling at the things that make
you different. It is complete devotion. It takes the pain of growth and patience with
injuries, it is loving your body and pushing it to its edge. It is the faith in a possibility of
being able to accomplish something so difficult that it seems barely possible. Sometimes
you have to give up parties, camping trips, watching the shows that you yourself are
part of because you spend so much of your time training. These can feel like big losses
at times and yet that devotion is part of the beauty because you can see it and feel it.

It inspires people about their bodies and frees us if only for a second of the limitations we

have superimposed on our own selves and the human race.”

Please Check out The YouTube channel, and please share it

Clean Socks Channel

Clean Socks Contortion Show, and end of year PARTY!

Feel free to bring your dressed up fancy self and friends for a holiday get together after!!

____________________________

impossible without the

::::PERFORMANCES BY:::

Fleeky Flanco

Sasha Harrington

Inka

Indie + Friend

Sophia Fox

Dancers and Musicians of the Mongolian National Ensemble

Benjamin Hancock

Bree ‘Rock’ Noack

Featherpistol

Lance Centanni-Sachs

Tara Quinn

Amy & Hooslyn

www.cleansocksproject.org

www.faern-in-the-works.com

cleansocksproject@gmail.com

for questions, involvement, volunteering