EN
Relations between different notions measuring proximity to ℓ₁ and distortability of a Banach space are studied. The main result states that a Banach space all of whose subspaces have Bourgain ℓ₁-index greater than $ω^{α}$, α < ω₁, contains either an arbitrarily distortable subspace or an $ℓ₁^{α}$-asymptotic subspace.