Notika (Nataliia Favaz)
«Through the Feminine Feelings: Different Dance Styles Meet House Dance»
Location:
Berlin
Self-description, education & work experience:
Nataliia Favaz (widely known as Notika) is from Ukraine and is a professional dancer since 2010 (styles: House Dance and Hip-Hop). From the very beginning of her dance journey, she was aimed to know and train in different styles, sports and activities, as well as got a lot of inspiration from the huge variety of dance styles: Waacking, Vogue, Ballet, Capoeira, Belly Dance, Lindy Hop, Locking, Charleston, Tap Dance, Stretching, Judo, Yoga, Salsa dance, Rollers dance, Dancehall, Afro – spectacularly prolific list!
Nataliia did a lot of video projects for her university (the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute), also was chosen (alongside her friends) to dance in a big project in Kyiv, with famous singer Ivan Dorn (2018).
She was dancing and performing in showcases on different occasions, starred in video projects (about the meeting of house dance and more traditional styles).
Examples of her video-works:
1) «Ukrainian Women’s Traditions Meet House Dance “Hustka dance”» (2021);
2) «Ukrainian Carpathian Culture Meets House Dance» (2020);
3) «Arabic Culture Meets House Dance» (2020).
She took part in competitions by her university with her team «Hype Dance Team». Notika also proved herself as a good organiser, having organised «House Talking Session» in Kyiv (2021) in order to let people know more about the House dance culture and its history in Ukraine.
Additionally, Notika is recognized as a good teacher and therefore she was invited to multiple dance camps, such as:
1) «Blaze Dance Camp» (resident teacher);
2) «Capoeira Camp» vol 1 & 3 (workshops‘ presenter);
3) «The Camp» (Berlin, workshops‘ presenter).
She was and still is traveling and taking part in competitions and workshops. Moreover, Nataliia has also participated in battles as a judge, examples:
1) «Mix Style Battle» (2022);
2) «Borispil Battle» (2022);
3) «Porvi Battle» (2021);
4) «Golfstream» (2021);
5) «Helga Modern Dance Studio Battle» (2018) and many more.
Introduction to the project:
Notika (aka Nataliia Favaz) is a professional dancer in House dance and Hip-Hop. She wants to explore the manifestation of femininity in different dancing styles across various cultures and make people fond of house dance, therefore making it more colourful and diverse, giving it a new flavour.
Description of the project:
«Power of a woman»: Since the beginning of her dance career, Notika was studying feminine power, as she believes that everyone, as an artist, has his/her power, strong sides and special abilities – every person is unique. She thinks that we are just in need to find our uniqueness inside ourselves and work on it, develop it to make it blossom even stronger.
Nataliia is sure that femininity is one of the strongest sides of women. With her special approach she maintains that throughout history it is possible to find that women were treated differently in various parts of the world, as well as in dissimilar cultures and societies and depending on the history of nations and the time when women were living. That’s why sometimes it feels like in some world cultures women didn’t have the right to represent themselves properly and with pride, as well as didn’t have much freedom, while other women were ruling dynasties.
Notika is particularly inspired by Egyptian, Roman cultures and says that a lot of other cultures play important part in her research, because they show clearly how women were treated in different ways. The word “femininity” also can have different meanings, especially in dance.
Notika aspires to work with various dancing styles including folk dance, street dance, traditional dances, etc. in a way that in the end she will be able to enlighten communities on how women perform such dances, how they can feel the power of themselves and how their femininity is reflected following her own example. Lastly, she intends to bring all these studies to her main dancing style: house dance.
Contact information:
@natafawaz_notika (Telegram)
Examples of Notika‘s video works:
1) Ukrainian Carpathian culture meets house dance https://www.instagram.com/p/CC8AASGhpKt/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
2) Ukrainian women’s traditions meet house dance “Hustka dance” https://www.instagram.com/p/CMr1sRnJe7d/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
3) Arabic culture meets house dance https://www.instagram.com/p/CJLwLXOJxK_/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
4) Afro meets House https://www.instagram.com/p/CUStSebMLBM/?igshid=Y
5) Jazz meets House Dance https://www.instagram.com/p/CVLJsjZMwmT/?igshid=Y mMyMTA2M2Y=
6) House dance showcase in Berlin https://www.instagram.com/tv/CeIhtvFOjjd/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
7) Video project “Stop the war EVERYWHERE” https://www.instagram.com/tv/CgBwgf7utal/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D