Singer goes back to floor routine
Musician was head over heels when she teamed up with her old gym buddy, writes Anna Burnside
WALKING into the gym after a 23-year absence is daunting for anyone.
For Tamara Schlesinger, a former Scottish champion gymnast who hadn’t been on a floor mat since she broke her ankle age 17, it was terrifying and comforting at the same time.
“It just felt like home,” she said. “It was my old club. That place was my life growing up.”
Since retiring from the form of gymnastics called sports acrobatics, 39-year-old Tamara has had a career in the music business, first with her band Six Day Riot, then as solo performer Malka.
Home in Glasgow after decades in London, she rediscovered her old gym partner Lorna Somner. Back in the day, they competed together in the UK and abroad. She wrote a song, Moving Together, about reconnecting with old friends and discovering that nothing has changed.
The obvious next step was to see if they could still do a one-arm flag and fly through the air as if they were carefree teenagers again.
Tamara sent Lorna a message asking if she fancied making a gymnastics video to promote the single. Her former partner said yes.
Lorna had continued competing after Tamara bowed out, then joined Cirque du Soleil. She hung up her high wire four years ago, moved back to East Kilbride and works as a physiotherapist. Her daughter trains at her mum’s old club.
These connections made walking back into the gym less intimidating for Tamara. She said: “Some of the coaches I worked with were still there and some former gymnasts were coaching.
“It was lovely. Sports acro is not massive in Scotland, we were champions, so people from that era all knew who we were.”
That warm fuzzy feeling did not survive her first adult gymnastics class. Tamara said: “I was in pain for a week. I was not sure if I could do it again. Muscles I didn’t know existed hurt. It was so bad I had to go down the stairs on my bum.”
But through the agony, the muscle memory was still there. She tried “a little semi backflip” – and managed it.
Could she do a backflip and land in the splits? After 23 years out of a leotard? She tried and was amazed to pull it off on her first attempt.
Lorna gets a lot of the credit. Tamara said: “When you’ve got someone who’s your partner and she says, do this, you can do this, you trust them. Something clicked in me, I was back in determined gymnast mind.
“The level we could do was surprising. It was painful but I loved it at the same time.”
They quickly fell back into the old routines. Tamara said: “At first I was afraid to stand on her, I was much bigger and heavier than when we were skinny teenagers, But she’s strong, in Vegas with Cirque du Soleil she was throwing grown men in the air.
“We held hands and it just felt the same, I still had the memory of that move.”
This was all very sweet and nostalgic but there was a video to shoot. Eight weeks after their first session on the mat, Tamara and Lorna had to have the choreography down.
Lorna’s schedule made it difficult to train together.
They managed two hours most Mondays. If she couldn’t make it, Tamara practised at home or did a solo session at the gym.
This caused some alarm to her children Matilda, seven, and threeyear-old Hal, who would come into the living room to find their mother doing a handstand or folding her legs over her head.
It also put some strain on her weak ankle, still problematic after 23 years.
I was in pain for a week. Muscles I didn’t know existed were hurting
MUSICIAN Tamara is now a singer
But Tamara pushed through and filmed the promo, which was released last week.
Tamara in a tracksuit, surrounded by amazed little girls in spangly costumes, is a change from her usual performances. When she’s making a promotional film or performing live, she leaves her school run persona behind and becomes Malka – in wild costumes and outrageous makeup.
Her latest look is a rose gold army helmet with matching military cape, perfect for her new album I’m Not Your Soldier. The false eyelashes, like peacock feathers, would not be appropriate on the parade ground.
She said: “I like to look like that on stage. Having had children, I need to be a different person when I perform. It’s hard to switch personalities when I’m wearing the same old things.”
Her stage name means queen in Arabic. Just as Beyonce transforms into Sasha Fierce to slay a stadium, Tamara ramps up her lashes, straps on her helmet and becomes the warrior queen Malka. It was a deliberate move to distance herself from her previous band, Six Day Riot. They did as well as an indie folk-pop trio can do in the age of music downloading and streaming, supporting Belle & Sebastian and Deacon Blue, playing Glastonbury, Bestival and other festivals.
But branching out on her own, Malka wanted to evolve beyond the old crew. These days, as well as recording and performing live, she pops up on adverts and TV shows. This is one of the few ways 21st-century musicians make money.
The first track she ever recorded, a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made For Walking, is on the soundtrack of Guy Ritchie film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Two of her songs appeared on the Channel 4 series Skins and she has popped up on TV shows and films.
With decades of experience in the music business, plus a degree in fashion that allows her to design her own eye-popping costumes, she is well-placed to pass on her skills to the next generation.
She teaches at SAE in Glasgow, giving young musicians hard-won insights into the industry.
The day job came along at a perfect time for Tamara, when young children meant she couldn’t spend half a year in a Transit van any more.
Her competing days are still over but Tamara is back in the gym every week. She and Lorna plan to keep up the levers and planks for as long as their legs will carry them. She said: “We enjoyed it so much, spending time together, doing something we love, we felt we can’t draw a line under that.” ●Malka is playing at Stereo, Glasgow on March 6. Her album, I’m Not Your Soldier, is out on Tantrum Records.