Ayagma Tsybenova

Research dossier — 2026-08-16

Life and background

Ayagma Tsybenova is Buryat — from the Buryat ethnic group of the Lake Baikal region of Russia (Republic of Buryatia). Buryatia has a strong tradition of contortion, rooted in the same cultural and geographic heritage as Mongolian uran nuguralt (artistic bending). Her birth date and early biographical details are not documented in publicly available sources reviewed.

Training

No specific training background has been documented in the sources reviewed. The Buryat Contortionist Group / Angara Contortion's level of skill is consistent with intensive early childhood training through a formal contortion school — a standard pathway for Buryat and Mongolian contortionists.

Career

Cirque du Soleil — *Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities*

Tsybenova is a featured performer in Cirque du Soleil's Kurios — Cabinet of Curiosities, where she appears with fellow Buryat contortionists Bayarma Zodboeva, Imin Tsydendambaeva, and (in different cast rotations) Khaliunsuren Narankhuu or Serchmaa Bayarsaikhan.

Multiple major publications reviewed the act:

• SFGate (Robert Hurwitt): 'Bayarma Zodboeva, Imin Tsydendambaeva, Lilia Zhambalova and Ayagma Tsybenova portray sea creatures in a contortion-balancing act'
• LA Times: 'a trio of contortionists who melt and reshape themselves into what look like Chihuly-style, blown-glass sculptures (Bayarma Zodboeva, Ayagma Tsybenova and Khaliunsuren Narankhuu)'
• Slant Magazine: 'Imin Tsydendambaeva, Bayarma Zodboeva, Ayagma Tsybenova, and Serchmaa Bayarsaikhan rise from an iron gauntlet like squiggling fingers'

Britain's Got Talent 2017

The group performed as Angara Contortion on Britain's Got Talent 2017, where a YouTube recording of their audition shows four contortionists 'pushing their bodies to the limits as they twist, turn and twine together.'

The group also operates a Facebook page (Buryat Contortionist Group, @BuryatGirls) and their Instagram account is @ayagma_tsybenova.

The act

The Kurios act is described by the LA Times as contortionists who 'melt and reshape themselves into what look like Chihuly-style, blown-glass sculptures' — a group contortion act framed as sea creatures in the show's steampunk-cabinet narrative. The act combines group synchrony, contact contortion (multiple bodies interacting in connected poses), and balancing elements.

Legacy

Ayagma Tsybenova is part of the Buryat contortion tradition's modern international diaspora, carrying the Lake Baikal-region heritage of extreme backbending flexibility into the global circus arena through Cirque du Soleil — one of the world's most visible circus companies.

Sources

• Theater review: Kurios – SFGate (Robert Hurwitt) — https://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Theater-review-Kurios-Best-Cirque-du-Soleil-5895588.php (Names Tsybenova explicitly as one of four sea-creature contortionists in Kurios)
• Critic's Choice: Cirque du Soleil Kurios – Los Angeles Times, 2015 — https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-cirque-du-soleil-kurios-review-20151210-story.html (Names Tsybenova in trio of contortionists described as 'Chihuly-style blown-glass sculptures')
• Kurios review – Slant Magazine — https://www.slantmagazine.com/theater/review-cirque-du-soleils-kurios-cabinet-of-curiosities-at-randalls-island (Names Tsybenova in cast rising 'from an iron gauntlet like squiggling fingers')
• Angara Contortion – Britain's Got Talent 2017 audition – YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq33NwLdrpE (Group performing as Angara Contortion on BGT 2017)