This morning, the Baltimore Sun published an interview with Natasha Patterson, Koozå contortionist extraordinaire. An excerpt is below:
- At 4 p.m. on a Tuesday, when most 12-year-olds are starting their homework, Natasha Patterson is under the big top, rehearsing one of her routines.
Patterson, the youngest member of Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza tour, stands at the end of a Rockettes-like line and kicks her legs up past her chin. For her, this is the easy part. Tonight, when Kooza makes its Baltimore debut, Patterson will do a handstand on top of another girl’s stomach.
“She’s not your usual 12-year-old,” said Maxime Charbonneau, the tour’s publicist. “She has the chance to see the world as well as do something she likes.”
Natasha has never been an average kid. She was 2 when her mother, Georgina Patterson, enrolled them both in a mother/child gymnastics class near their San Francisco home. Natasha took an interest in gymnastics, and by age 5 began taking part in rhythmic gymnastic competitions. A year later, she teamed up with Julie Bergez and Dasha Sovik to form a contortionist trio called the Mystic Pixies. Corporations hired the Pixies to perform at their events, and Cirque du Soleil invited them to audition when Natasha was 9.
Read the full article here
{ SOURCE: Baltimore Sun }
