Katarina Danks
Katarina Danks is a dancer, educator, coach/trainer and world-class performer trained in contortion, hand balancing, jazz and contemporary dance. Her performances are nothing short of eye-popping. Blending an artistic mix of body-bending contortion skills (she’s accomplished in Mongolian, European and contemporary contortion) with jazz and contemporary dance choreography and stage presence, Kat creates unique shapes in elegant inverted ways. She has performed at numerous venues throughout Southwest Florida, including Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre (with Circus Transform US), Art Walks the Runway Fashion Show at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, the Fort Myers Film Festival’s T.G.I.M. screenings, Telemundo Television, HSN, Papa John’s and others.
Katarina began her training at age seven and evolved to the professional level during her high school years. From the age of eight, she trained in contortion at Betsy Wray Shuttleworth’s Dance Extensions Performing Arts Center in the Pittsburgh suburb of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. A former ballet dancer, Shuttleworth is an internationally-renowned flexibility and contortion expert who counts among her numerous clients Cirque Du Soleil trainers Otgo Waller, Angelique, Olga Pikchenko and Enkhee Tumen. Von Schoning is the creator, organizer and producer of International Contortion Conventions. And it’s no accident that while under Shuttleworth’s tutelage, 
Kat not only competed in regional and national contortion contests in the United States, but performed professionally in Europe.
During her five-week tour of venues throughout Germany and Australia, she performed at well-attended variety shows produced by Ska Von Schoning’s Showbiz Productions, which now hosts contortion conventions and competitions in Las Vegas and other locations in the United States.
Since 
turning professional, Kat has won numerous awards in various recreational and professional competitions for performance, technique, stage presence, choreography, and the difficulty of her routines. She has performed for Showbiz Productions, National Geographic, Royal Hanneford Circus, International Contortion Convention, Cirque du Soleil, Big Apple Circus, Ringling Brothers, Circus Roncallie and Que Noche for Telemundo.
Katarina holds a B.S. in Marketing.
For more about Katarina, please visit swflcontortion.com and Instagram @Bendykat.
February 3, 2019; revised February 9, 2021.
RELATED ARTICLES.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.