If you’ve been struggling with insecurity, one way to master your fears is through art (& specifically bodypaint). Our new podcast "Overcoming Your Insecurities through Art” features an interview with choreographer Natasha Markwick (worked with Madonna, Shakira, etc) and World Champion Bodypainter Trina Merry at YouTube Space NY.

If you prefer to read instead of listening or watching, here is the transcript of the podcast:

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TRINA: Hey, how's it going?

NATASHA: Hey, how are you?

TRINA: Good. Why don't you tell us who you are, and what you do, and all that stuff.

NATASHA: Sure. Name is Natasha Markwick. I am originally from Denmark. I moved to New York about seven years ago to pursue my career as a professional dancer. That is what I'm doing right now. Working as a full-time dancer, choreographer.

TRINA: What's it like to get body painted? What's it feel like? What do you wish people knew about it?

NATASHA: When I really go into bodypainting, one of the reasons I wanted to explore that world was actually to do with my own comfortability. 'Cause I've always been kind of shy about my body and didn't want to show it, and that doesn't really work in the dancer world. Especially when you got to auditions. Sometimes as a female they basically have you in underwear.

TRINA: Basically.

NATASHA: Basically. It was also a challenge just for myself that I really wanted to get into being comfortable with being technically naked in front of a whole lot of strangers. Then on top of it being painted.

TRINA: [LAUGH] Real up close and personal.

NATASHA: Yeah. It was a personal challenge, but I luckily surprised myself on how comfortable I felt in the space. Mostly because you make it into a safe space. You make sure that everyone feels comfortable and they're okay. You ask obviously all the time if you want to go on live, or if you want to be photographed, or whatever in between the scenes.

TRINA: Yeah, for sure.

NATASHA: You make sure that everyone feels safe and comfortable. I think I've only worked with one other artist besides you regarding body paint. But, you know it's cold. [LAUGH] That's how it feels.

TRINA: Yeah, for sure.

NATASHA: It's cold.

TRINA: Especially the airbrush.

NATASHA: Right, and it takes you know... it's long.

TRINA: I screamed the first time I got airbrushed.

NATASHA: Right.

TRINA: On my back, I was like [SCREAMING NOISE]

NATASHA: Right, it's cold.

TRINA: People have to feel this. Oh my gosh. [LAUGH]

NATASHA: Yeah, it gets there. It's also just mentally a different challenge that you have to be okay with walking around kind of naked all day and just waiting.

TRINA: It's more than just the process of getting painted. Before you perform there's definitely that don't mess up the painting period.

NATASHA: Right, because then we gotta do it all over again.

TRINA: People don't think about that. The pressure's on.

NATASHA: 'Cause you think once you've been painted you can just put on the cover-up and sit on your phone, a book, or whatever the rest of the day and wait for everyone else to get done. That's just not the case. [LAUGH]

TRINA: It sure is not. [LAUGH]

NATASHA: You can sit with your book, but you got to stand.

TRINA: Yeah, you got to lean. You got to get really good at leaning.

NATASHA: Right, right. You got to find those weird awkward moments where you can find comfortability.

TRINA: Yeah, for sure. How did you meet me? How did that happen? [LAUGH] How did I get so lucky?

NATASHA: I meet you... I know. How did I get so lucky? It was a friend of mine who, I don't even remember who she was working for, but she was working for a company set up the audition for your car. The automobile for the Japanese TV show. Who basically and just hit me up and was like, "There's this audition. You should try to go to it." I was like, "All right." I was brand new in New York, so.

TRINA: Same

NATASHA: Anything for me was like, "Yes. Let me try." I remember going to the audition you had us all try out all these poses. Try with different people the same pose, 'cause you were basically I guess, just trying to see who fit whom and what fit your vision. And you booked me.

TRINA: Which part were you?

NATASHA: I was the wheel. [LAUGH]

TRINA: Yeah you were. You and Dara. Solid wheels.

NATASHA: Me and Dara. Yes. We were the solid ones.

TRINA: We had quite a long day. A little bit more in regards to your own body image issues, what you're processing while you're getting body painted. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you're dealing with in your own body in those moments?

NATASHA: I guess I just... as long as I have a thong on or as long as I have... I have done the full naked with you, for sure. I definitely feel more comfortable with as long as I'm wearing a thong or like underwear. Then the rest I'm getting more and more comfortable with just being like, "Okay, that's what it is." We all have our own ideas of what we feel is our trouble areas or what we feel insecure about, and there's just not room for it 'cause everyone's just butt naked. [LAUGH] You know, it is what it is.

TRINA: Yeah.

NATASHA: Those thoughts kind of go away when you're in the moment. They might appear right before you walk into it, but as soon as we're in that room and we're painting, there's like 10 other guys or females being butt naked too and being bodypainting. Those thoughts don't really come into your head in the process. 'Cause you feel comfortable and it's like, "Oh, we're all here doing the same thing and now one's perfect, and there's no judgment, and it's just we're here for the art."

TRINA: I've had a lot of people come at me and be like this is a nudist sort of a deal, and I'm like no, 'cause I've been to nudist beaches or colonies to body paint before, or I've been nude myself at those places. I feel like people are still scoping each other out a little bit. There's still this curiosity. Whereas with body paint, when people are nude I don't feel that. I just feel like there really is that level of acceptance among the team. It's more than that. It's about functionality. Each person is so different in what they're capable of doing. Their body shapes are all so different.

NATASHA: There's a reason you chose those body types because it's supposed to fit the picture that you're creating.

TRINA: How has body paint changed your perspective of yourself, of your body, of the world? Have you noticed any changes at all?

NATASHA: I'm definitely obviously more confident now regarding I've been so many times naked, butt naked, in front of strangers. Even at the automobile show that we did. Where I was technically dancing in a thong. Body painted, but you know, I was naked in front of all these hundreds of people just walking around me and taking photos [LAUGH] You know it.

I definitely feel more comfortable about it, about myself. I mean, but at the end of the day I'm still in the dance world, so I'm always being challenged with being told or being shown that either this doesn't work, or you're not thin enough, you're not tall enough, you don't have enough booty. 

We're constantly being judged in that world. I'm still dealing with a lot of those kinds of struggles regarding my own body, but that's more because of the world that I work in. Regarding the body paint, that has definitely just help me feel more liberated.

Regarding being okay with myself, and feeling completely fine, and know that it's just some commercial that is being put into my head, and that has nothing to do with me as a woman. Me being comfortable in my own skin, and as a human being, and there are no flaws.

TRINA: How do you approach choreography? 'Cause you've been doing some choreography for the team.

NATASHA: Well, I'm very much into the old school. I grew up with dance being more from the 80s, the 90s, the 2000, the early 2000s, so a lot of my movement is based off that foundation. Regarding choreography just in general, I'm given a task, I'm given what kind of vision the person wants. Especially when you wanted to do the Studio 54, the client wanted a more disco, more Studio 54-ish energy. I just freestyle usually to a song that I'm really feeling. If that speaks to me then real quick I'll just create something fun out of it.

Then whoever I'm working with and show them to see if works on their body. When we dance together or if I'm just giving it to other people, see what works once we're in that creative space.

TRINA: As a human canvas, how do you help contribute to the artwork?

NATASHA: I think it's just such a different type of creating art. I feel like a lot of boundaries are being crossed in what the regular human being would see, either comfortable or see as art. I think you've definitely helped open eyes on a lot of...  open people's minds on what art should be and what it shouldn't be because you have explored that human beings, we are art in ourselves. We have our own stories to tell. We all have something to give.

You've made it possible to bring people together in their most vulnerable state and make them feel comfortable and help tell a story through what you want to show.