Sandra and her partner Alexei perform an adagio routine almost every day in the circus. Alexei is very strong and able to effortlessly lift Sandra into poses in the air. Sandra on the other hand is slim, has very long legs and is very flexible. Their show is THE sensation and they have already won many prizes. Above all the apparently effortless contortions that Sandra is able to perform on the stage supported by her partner seem to captivate audiences. The fact that these movements seem to be so effortless is down to the hard training that Sandra does every night with Alexei’s assistance. She loves Alexei but in his enthusiasm he makes her work really hard. He knows that the show depends in large measure on the breathtaking movements and stretches of his partner, so he pushes her to increase her flexibility even more. Their other colleagues in the circus have long become accustomed to the groaning and gasping from their caravan every evening. This evening he will push her harder than normal as the circus is moving on and there will be no performance the next day. A great time for tough stretches. She is wearing an ultra-thin white catsuit with a small white thong over it. On her feet, as always, she is wearing ballet shoes. She nearly always does the housework in the caravan on points. She warms up. She lies on her front, with her legs in the splits, one leg up on a stool and hovers with her pelvis towards the floor. After half an hour warming up, Alexei begins to “help�?! He stretches her on a splits machine. This is one of Alexei’s inventions to create the extreme positions that Sandra’s body will soon be achieving. She sits on a small padded board supported at the back by a metal tube. Her legs are bound to spreader bars. The stretch is produced not by a crank but by weights in a rack which pull the spreader bars backwards with cables and pulleys. So a continuous stretch can be applied over a longer period of time without needing to turn a crank. And also Sandra cannot get used to the stretch as the amplitude will continue to increase. He ties her elbows together behind her back with her hands behind her head. Alexei loads the weights. As the split into which Sandra is forced becomes ever more extreme, she begins to puff. He lets her know that he had no intention of stopping until there were five kilos applied. Sandra is horrified. Would she be able to stand that weight? Alexei replies that they will soon find out. As the weight increases, Sandra begins to whimper. Alexie stands in front of her and tries to calm her down. He told her that there was no point in crying because he had no intention of reducing the weight in the next two hours. He outlines an idea for a new trick in the show, that would need her to be able to do such extreme oversplits. To remain a sensation, certain sacrifices were required. You must stay one step (stretch!) ahead of the competition. And it is her flexibility alone that will secure the future success of their number. Sandra is only half listening. She is sweating. He pulls her torso forward. She cries. Nevertheless he holds the stretch for five minutes. He repeats this every quarter of an hour. When he finally releases her after two hours, she can hardly stand up. This is not too bad as she will not have to perform the next day. She had improved her oversplit by fifteen degrees in one evening so it was worth the effort. She thanked him and kissed him for a long time. At night, she sleeps on the floor. She lays on her tummy with both legs stretched in a split. Each foot is tied to a stool. She will not be able to walk properly in the morning. But by the next show she will be able to provide a new attraction. But that is another story.