A woman who is known for bending her body into all manner of inexplicable positions has opened up about her passion for contortion, even though it scares the hell out her friends and family. Watch her perform the potentially fatal Marinelli Bend below:
Anastasia Evsigneeva is originally from Russia but now lives with her husband in Canada.
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The 28-year-old began practising dancing, including floor gymnastics and stretching, when she was just a child - and by the age of just five was more flexible than her classmates.
In 2013, aged 20, she began training in contortion and began making videos of herself performing bends while using the computer or peeling vegetables.
She explained: "The full realisation came when I was 17 and dancing in a theatre in my home town.
"That's when the choreographer told me not to bend too much more than the others - especially in backbends."
So talented was she that it only took her a few days to learn how to do one of the most difficult and dangerous moves, the Marinelli bend - which involves the performer using just their mouth to support their entire body weight, with their legs coming over their head.
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Anastasia said: "There is a risk of fatality. People can injure their necks and that can injure the spinal cord so it is very dangerous.
"My coach warned my husband that people have died doing it and he was quite terrified."
While at first she says it was actually quite painful to do, Anastasia said this eventually went away and she was able to do it with relative ease.
She explained: "After my three classes, I couldn't fully balance alone but I was confident enough that I could safely enter and exit the pose, to start practising on my own.
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"On my seventh practice, I got my hands off the floor and performed the full Marinelli bend. My record is 36 seconds as of now.
"The world record is four minutes and thirty-eight seconds - which is very rare to be able to do.
"I consider 36 seconds to be a good amount and I'll keep practising."
Anastasia now shows off her impressive talents to her Instagram followers, though her husband can't bring himself to watch her.
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She added: "I get all of the range of reactions from disgust and repulsion to shock and surprise and admiration.
"Some people cannot even see it. I have a couple of friends who cannot watch as it makes them sick to their stomachs.
"My spouse got headaches even from knowing I was practising it [the Marinelli bend] as he felt so compassionate to me, he couldn't stand it.
"He got used to it over time and now he's more into me practising it. My family are very supportive too."
Featured Image Credit: PA REAL LIFE AND ROBERT WILSONTopics: Instagram, SPORT, Weird, Russia