Paul E. Frame (born April 16, 1957) is an American chiropractor and retired ballet dancer. Frame danced as a member of the corps de ballet at

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

for ten years before retiring from the stage. He is currently the resident chiropractor for

Ballet Arizona Ballet Arizona is a professional ballet company in Phoenix, Arizona directed by Daniela Cardim. The company was created in 1986 by a merger of three smaller Arizonan dance companies that were struggling to survive. Today, the company of thirty-one ...

Early life

Paul Frame was born in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in West Virginia, most populous city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Kanawha County, West Virginia, Kanawha County and ...

to Marvan and Mary Elizabeth Frame. As children, he and his twin brother

Peter Frame Peter Frame (April 16, 1957 – August 30, 2018) was an American ballet dancer and dance teacher. He danced with New York City Ballet from 1976 until 1990 and was elevated to the rank of principal dancer in 1988. He was a faculty member at the ...

took ballet lessons with Jerry Rose.

Career

Ballet

Frame was a member of the ''

corps de ballet In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French language, French for "body of the little dance") is the group of ballet dancer, dancers who are not principal dancers or Soloist (ballet), soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and ...

'' of the New York City Ballet from 1979 to 1999. The Frame brothers, Paul and Peter, were profiled in a 1981 book, ''Twins on Twins'', written by Julie Szekely with photographs by Kathryn McLaughlin Abbe and

Frances McLaughlin-Gill Frances McLaughlin-Gill (1919–2014) was an American photographer and the first female Fashion photography, fashion photographer under contract with ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue''. After two decades in the fashion industry, she worked as an indepen ...

. Frame was awarded a scholarship to attend

North Carolina School of the Arts The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is a public art school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It grants a high school diploma, in addition to both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Founded in 1963 as the North Carolina Sc ...

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 91st-most populous city in the Uni ...

. After graduating from School of the Arts, he joined the Ohio Ballet. While dancing with the Ohio Ballet, Frame was offered a spot at the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the age of six, with professional voc ...

in New York City on full-scholarship. He was chosen by

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

to join the corps de ballet at

, where he danced for ten years. In 1983,

Jennifer Dunning Jennifer Dunning (born February 4, 1942) is a writer and critic for ''The New York Times'' on the subjects of dance and ballet. She is the author of the 1985 ''But First a School: The First Fifty Years of the School of American Ballet'', the 1996 ...

, dance reviewer for the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

, praised his "impassioned Mouse King" in ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

''. He danced the role again in 1984. Dunning praised his "bold, clear dancing," in the sextet in the 1986 performance of ''Shadows,'' where she wrote that his dancing was a "highlight of the performance." In 1987, Dunning wrote that Frame "performed with a special radiance." In 1986, he danced in ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

''.

Chiropractic

Frame attended college at

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

. He graduated from Northeast College of Health Sciences in 1998 with a degree in Chiropractic and Physical Medicine Modalities and Therapeutic Procedures. He began his Chiropractic practice in

Tempe, Arizona Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...

shortly after finishing school. He is the resident chiropractor for

. He met the Ballet's Artistic Director,

Ib Andersen Ib Andersen (born 14 December 1954) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. He was principal dancer for the Royal Danish Ballet 1975-1980, for the New York City Ballet 1980-1990, freelancing ballet master 1990-2000 and artistic director of ...

, when both men were dancers with the New York City Ballet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frame, Paul Living people 20th-century American ballet dancers American chiropractors American male ballet dancers Dancers from West Virginia New York City Ballet dancers School of American Ballet alumni University of North Carolina School of the Arts alumni City College of New York alumni People from Charleston, West Virginia 1957 births