Word: contortionist
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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This mastery of theater techniques is the magic key to the Cirque's wizardry. No story unfolds, though the queen, a contortionist, eels about renewing her spells. But the mood and pace of the evening progress with the intensity of drama. One reason is the music, which is not the traditional blare of fanfares and marches but a unified score of jazz and rock...
...good black-light posters, but is she among the several dozen most talented young American architects? At the other end of the spectrum, postmodern sweetness still has baby-boom adherents. The cupola- topped shingle-style studio that Mark Simon designed for a Long Island beachfront is something of a contortionist folly: it jams all the moves of a mansion into a building the size of a gazebo. But in its earnest eagerness to please, the little building is more cute than contentious. John Syvertsen has envisioned a Wisconsin lake cottage as a kind of friendly folk pavilion: the tin chimney...
...outcome of the women's competition was less predictable. Biellmann, fourth-place finisher at the 1980 Olympics, is the most seasoned skater of the current crop. She carried the day with a blend of experienced sang-froid and virtuoso spins. In a contortionist move of her own contriving, she grabbed her left leg behind her back with both hands and stretched it high overhead, while spinning at dazzling speed on her right leg. The Biellmann spin is breathtaking, but she lacks the athletic triple jumps that have become the sport's new measuring stick. With the new emphasis...
...incantation to dispel the ills the world flings at him; his colleagues ponder their response to the supposed inspector-general's arrival with the cacophonous murmur of an elderly Orthodox Jewish congregation praying at different speeds. Richard Grusin's nasal, rotund Director of Welfare Institutions and Eric Elice's contortionist Superintendent of Schools, especially, transform this group into a human array of deformity who physically mirror their own insides...