[New York Close Up]

[WATER DRIPPING]

["Mika Tajima Wants To Hire Contortionists"]

[OMINOUS DRUM BEAT]

The volume is really good...

[OMINOUS DRUM BEAT]

Nice to meet you, thanks for coming.

I’m so excited.

Sorry I'm a few minutes late.

Come on in.

[Mika Tajima--Artist]

Uh, I thought we’d just try some abstract short clips of you doing some initial moves...

[Tony Mitchell--Contortionist]

And I think Christopher is going to get here at four.

We’ll just work...we’ll work just with you solo if that’s okay. Just do a couple moves and shapes and whatever.

Whatever you need.

[OMINOUS DRUM BEAT]

[Two Months Earlier]

[At Mika's Studio]

Yeah, yeah.

Well basically, you know how a lot of the themes in the show is like about how the body is being controlled by the environment or sort of different elements, modern elements.

[Mika is talking to her gallery]

So there’s like these ergonomic chairs that are going to be part of the installation.

So... that got me thinking about what you know the body can do and whatever and so I started thinking like oh, it would be really cool if there’s a...a salon where there was like a yoga person and a contortionist.

Sort of like doing sort of dance type thing, and I was looking online.

There are these different websites for like contortionists united, and people who are amateurs that just want to like showcase their flexibility.

I think that could be kind of a cool performance idea but I first wanted to run it by you guys and see if that’s a possibility.

Yeah, yeah.

Do you want to put your coat in here.

Should we try a little sort of dry run rehearsal thing?

Christopher Bousquet--Contortionist

See the rhythm of the two of you?

See what happens.

See what happens? Okay, cool.

[OMINOUS DRUM BEAT]

Yeah, when you see some of the poses, they really look like the chairs. You know the chairs I have?

So I like that they’ve become like almost like a sculptural element to the show.

So I think it’ll be cool, but you know like budget wise, is that something that seems feasible? Possible?

Come in, come in.

I like it.

Thank you!

I like it and I love the paper panels.

Thank you.

[OMINOUS DRUMMING]

[OMINOUS DRUMMING GROWING LOUDER]

[APPLAUSE]

That was ama...that was like a circus, that was amazing.

Close up and personal.

Where did you find them?

Contortionists United social networking site.

I mean I...I’m confident about installation and the work itself but just to insert one small gesture of like this performative element in the show I think is important.

So it’s...this is really simple like half hour performance, I think. So that’s the idea.

Mmm hmm, yeah. Yeah, cool.