What is Frame Up Strip? A guide to the dance style

If you've landed here from a search, you've probably seen the style called a few different things: Frame Up, Frame Up Strip, or just "Strip." All three point to the same dance - and this page walks through what it actually is, where it came from, and where it's being danced today.

The dance style and origins

Frame Up Strip is a floor-based dance style, performed mostly on the floor rather than standing, that blends strip plastic with jazz, hip-hop, contemporary dance - well just about anything! It's built around intricate legwork, sharp directional changes, and a strong emphasis on musicality: the choreography tracks the beat and the vocals closely enough that watching it feels like watching the music itself move.

It's often shortened to just "Strip" in conversation. Dancers will mention an upcoming "strip competition," and it sounds like it should be about striptease, which is a different style. This style is about shape, control, and expression, and choreography can just as easily be dark, sharp, or strange as sensual.

The shoes are platform shoes, called "Strips" in Russian, used both to execute certain moves but also to give the movement its extended lines (and break them as well). Many dancers also train and perform in socks or bare feet, especially early on. But knee pads are a must to protect your knees, especially while you learn how to distribute weight on the floor.

Frame Up Strip is young as dance styles go, it is roughly a decade old. It's traced to Nastya Yurasova, who began developing the style's core vocabulary in Russia, with Irina Podshivalova credited as a second key figure in shaping it into what it is today. It's technically a sub-direction of strip plastic, though the two have drifted apart enough that they're now genuinely distinct styles that happen to share a nickname. And even if the history is not long, the style has already been going through changes, with a ‘new’ modern Frame Up breaking up the previously fixed rules and using flexing of the foot to bring the possibilities to the next level.

The global Frame Up community

While there have been classes and teachers scattered around Europe and the world before, the true catalyst of Frame Up spread was corona virus that brought both teachers and students online in the 2020s. With classes available to everyone, the language was still a barrier. However, soon after the pandemic and due to growing demand, Frame Up weekends, a set of workshops and classes during one weekend, became a popular way for people to learn from many teachers at once and interact with other members of community. The biggest ones numbered more than 100 people, most notably the Frame Up weekend in Prague and many visitors would go back to their own countries and start communities of their own. Dancers have presented the style at TV shows and competitions, such as World of Dance, as well as Frame Up becoming a popular ‘extra’ class at High Heels conventions. Frame Up dancers are also not afraid to join dance battles and impress the audience with the tricks, technicality and emotions. Recently, competitions focused on Frame Up and high heels have been growing.

For a more comprehensive picture of the teachers and events, check out Strip Map and to learn more about them, check out the episodes from Strip Journey.