Nataly, Frame Up.

Before I discovered coffee, I used to listen to music to get pumped up for the day. Especially during my time in community college, there is this one song by Fabolous that I would put on while the 7.25-train drove me through a landscape that was as foggy as my head. After a long history of messy years behind me, I finally felt that I was on the right track. So I could relate to the lyrics saying: ‘Money ain’t everything, it’s more about the timing’.

I think of this song when I see Nataly. The moment she starts dancing, there is something that makes everything else in the room blur to the background. The way she hits the most minimalistic beats is close to becoming my obsession. My body simply becomes fluid and all I can do is just stop, stare and be amazed by how effortlessly she transitions from one movement into another. I wish for everybody to be lucky enough to watch a performance, and to notice afterwards, that at some point, you had stopped hearing the music.

You will never become a dancer

Instead of typing, I find my fingers lost composing above the keyboard. Because there is so much I want to tell about her, but only so little words can describe her and her dancing enough. That’s why I can’t imagine that somebody told her years ago that she ‘will never become a dancer’.

She laughs thinking about this moment. ‘Oh, he was right. I was terrible.’ I laugh along with her, when she tells me that she auditioned for him, with the core believe that she was a dancer, but had never taken one dance class in her life. ‘You know, I always wanted to dance, but for that, you need to have the right opportunities.’ At that time, the responsibilities of being a mother were her biggest priority, and for that, care needed to be given and money needed to be made.

With that, she doesn’t dance for an other ten years. Until her life moves into a direction where there is more space for her inner dancer to re-awake. With this new wave of energy, as of spring has started and it’s time to dry your linen out in the fresh breeze, she steps into a studio where a new dance style called Frame Up is offered. By this time, Nataly is 37. Her eyes light up when she talks about her first class: ‘I was addicted immediately’.

Frame what?

To understand her excitement we need to have a moment to understand what frame up is about. The style was created only 12 years ago by choreographer Anastasia Yurasova (Moscow, Russia), coming from the curiosity of exploring other possibilities of what excisting dance styles had to offer, just like breakdance got developed in the US about 30 years earlier. At this point, we are quite some years in after the cold war and our focus had shifted to the danger of global warming, so we can’t use that as an excuse for us not culturally exchanging our dance knowledge. But still, it took until about now that small parts of the dancing community in the West start to learning about its existence.

When frame up occurred on the schedule of my dance studio, I learned that it’s not an equivalent for the more famous strip plastic. Although both of the styles focus on emphasizing with the femininity of the body, frame up is more influenced by styles like street dance, hiphop and vogue, and therefor counts more sharp, highly controlled movements. The challenge of style lies in transitioning between boldness and sensuality, with the full attention on the musicality. Where you will see fluidity and seductiveness in a strip plastic-performance, a frame up-choreography will be filled with more rigid accents. The style reminds me of that toxic mix of romance and drama, brought to the world as a multilayered poem that can only be found in Russian literature, like Anna Karenina.

Now, this style is challenging for both someone with years of dance experience and someone who has never set foot in a dance studio before, especially for those who have never danced in heels. When she started to dance frame up, Nataly made the classic mistake of wearing shoes that were unbendable, impossible to perform the various poses and move comfortably around the floor. She struggled, also after getting her strips – the shoes that are needed to enable the maximum extension of the feet. The classes were challenging, there was not enough attention for the health of the body, and the pressure was so high, that she remembered at some point crying in the changing room. But it’s a combination of a deep love and passion, surrounded by Russian toughness, that make her continue coming to classes. Only two years after her first class, she signs up for an audition for the professional dance group of her teacher. It takes her two more auditions over the following years to be accepted.

Going professional

By joining the group, the amount of dancing hours increased. And so did her confidence. By perfectioning the moves, feeling the trust of her teacher and winning prizes in competitions, she finds herself being curious for exploring the next step, and creates a first solo-performance. It may be her Russian heart including storytelling into her pieces. ‘Every choreo has a story,’ she says. ‘It can come from your inside, what is happening in your life, or you want to talk about what is going on in the world. Art is never without a story.’

What I admire in her, is how everything she does is touching emotion. Even if she doesn’t focus on the emotion itself, she creates something around the setting she wants to embody. ‘A rainy day, sitting next to the fireplace, having your hands wrapped around a cup of hot chocolate…’ It starts with selecting the music, then listening to it over and over. After understanding the deeper layers of the music, she attaches a story to how it is making her feel. From there, the first improvisations are made. When she shows me, I – again – feel my brain go numb. ‘I record my first three improv’s, and then select the parts I want to keep.’

Today, Nataly is participating and winning international competitions, both solo as together with her new group F.U.S.T., under the lead of choreographer Anastasia Urmanovichius. And she is passing on her knowledge to her students. Her students are a big blend of nationalities from all over the world. She feels responsible for teaching them the right techniques, but even more for making them feel happy. For this, she focuses on making them feel in touch with their body. ‘Life can be so hectic. When they are in my class, I want them to reconnect. Become present again.’

Eyes on the future

I’ve had the pleasure of joining a couple of her classes now. Before her, I never experienced a class where also the warm-up feels like a choreography, nor did I have the pleasure of including a foot massage into my cooling down. And what I noticed, is how she compliments every student by the end of her class of her achievements that day. Even if that achievement is showing up, Nataly knows how that can be a victory too. My first thinking is on how her investing in the well-being of her students must come from not wanting any other girl to feel like how she felt after that first audition. But no: ‘I never even think of that guy. Who is he? No, my only competition is myself.’

It is this focus on growth that keep her from reconnecting with her younger self, and give her a little tap on the shoulder for believing in her dream. I can say a lot about how she should, about how that young girl deserves it, but then I also have to acknowledge that it’s simply Nataly who does not look back, only forward. ‘There is still so much to learn, there is no ending. So I will keep going.’

I contacted Nataly for this series, because of the fact that she is not only a mouth-dropping performer, but also because we have something in common: that even though we had this core believe at a young age that we are dancers, we started late. We did not grow up with the right opportunities and we are years behind on the girls who saw a studio before kindergarten. But we both also kept our eyes open and grabbed the first opportunity the moment it revealed itself. And I like to believe that everything happens for a reason, and so every timing is the right timing. Nataly’s arms start to move passionately around the space: ‘It is never too late. Start, and keep going. Believe in yourself. I believe in you.’

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