Nadia Natali - Stairway to Paradise: Growing Up Gershwin

STAIRWAY TO PARADISE

NADIA NATALI

Growing Up Gershwin

Rare Bird = Los Angeles, Calif.

Text Copyright 2016 by Nadia Natali

Photographs Copyright 2016 by Nadia Natali & Enrico Natali

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

A Genuine Rare Bird Book

453 South Spring Street, Suite 302

Los Angeles, California 90013

rarebirdbooks.com

ePub ISBN: 978-1-942600-66-4

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data

Names: Natali, Nadia, author and photographer | Natali, Enrico, photographer.

Title: Stairway to paradise : growing up Gershwin / by Nadia Natali ; Photographs by Nadia Natali and Enrico Natali.

Description: First Hardcover Edition | A Rare Bird Book | New York ; Los Angeles : Rare Bird Books, 2015.

Identifiers: ISBN 978-1-942600-57-2

Subjects: Natali, Nadia. | Gershwin family. | ComposersUnited StatesBiography. | LyricistsUnited StatesBiography |Gershwin, George, 1898-1937. | Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983. | Godowsky, Leopold, 1870-1938. | Godowsky, Frances Gershwin. | PsychotherapistsUnited StatesBiography. | Dance therapy. | BuddhistsBiography. | BISAC: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

Classification: LCC ML410.G288 N38 2015 | DDC 780/.92/2dc23

If youre living the life you feel you are made for, you can take a hell of a lot of dying. What kills us is when we are dying at someone elses life weve mistaken as our own. David Whyte

I have been up and down and around George and Iras Stairway to Paradise many times, and I thank my original family for giving me a chance to experience this world in all its wild glory.

Nadia Natalis story glides, leaps, and even kicks as she takes us up and down the staircase of a life performed with wild splendor. She is clearly the dancing daughter of Frankie Gershwin, the gifted singer and dancer who was also the kid sister of George and Ira Gershwin. Nadias remarkable story includes a journey to the Kalahari Bushmen where she met the dancing healers of the worlds oldest living culture. From her Broadway lineage to the ancestors of all humanity, Nadia Natali embodies the call to strike up the bandno matter what suffering or blessing may be presentand proclaim that a greater love is here to stay.

Bradford Keeney, PhD, coauthor of Way of the Bushman and
Sacred Ecstatics: The Recipe for Setting Your Soul on Fire

Stairway to Paradise is a camera obscura into the extraordinary life of master dance therapist Nadia Natali. It follows her path, unblinkingly, as she senses her way through the complex and often unsettling dynamics of a gifted and famous family to an equally rarified existence as an off-the-grid homesteader living and rearing a family in a teepee deep in the Matilija Wilderness. Despite the uniqueness of Natalis path, I found myself emotionally captivated by her spirit of self discovery, and quite in awe of her raw courage. An illuminating and inspiring read.

Peggy La Cerra, PhD, author of The Origin of Minds

Stairway to Paradise is a heartwarming and painfully honest memoir of growing up a Gershwin; its glory, anguish, and the desperate desire to find ones own unique self at all costs. A thoroughly exquisite read.

Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy, author of Night in Jerusalem

Nadia Natali has written a memoir that chronicles eras, class, and the search for spiritual fulfillment. Her story features a cast of troublesome but endearing characters, all described with love and clarity. Natali, as spirit guide, shares memories from her early days when she was a child of luxury, to the later hardships and joys as a wife and mother living off the grid, starting out in a teepee with her husband Enrico and their children. It is a story told with fearless honesty, including the tragic loss of her son and her evolution to dance therapy, helping others work through their pain of personal loss. This book is packed with amazing stories told by a woman who understands that no truth is too hard to face, and from this, she has emerged transcendent.

Edie Pistolesi, PhD, Professor of Art, California State University Northridge

Also by Nadia Natali

Cooking Off the Grid

Blue Heron Ranch Cookbook

Contents

The road to Blue Heron Ranch

O n December 8, 1980, my husband, Enrico, our three-year-old daughter, Francesca, and I finished our cross-country journey to Ojai, California, where we planned to make a home on land we had seen only once but had long been dreaming about, away from city life and, especially, away from my difficult and powerful family.

Wed caravaned in separate vehicles, hauling all that we could carry in and on top of our cars, in addition to a foldout trailer hitched to Enricos Toyota jeep. At the end of a long, winding, two-lane road that followed Matilija Creek, a brown metal gate barred our way. Beyond the gate lay the Los Padres National Forest, wilderness, and a mile farther up a dirt road through the canyon, our property. We had to wait for a key to open the lock, a key that a forest ranger was going to hand overthe key to our new life. I gazed toward the jagged and intimidating mountains that leaned over the canyon. Inhaling the sweet smell of the dry chaparral, I couldnt help but compare it to the lush, green landscape of my childhood home in Connecticut. This is going to be a very different life , I thought. My privileged upbringing seemed the polar opposite of this place, and maybe that was what attracted me to it. Observing the struggles of my family and seeing that money and fame had failed to bring happiness, Id learned I needed to find my own path. I had not fully formulated my goal, but it was something unique and original, and I had to find it on my own.

A moment later a forest service truck pulled up by the gate. You sure found yourselves a beautiful piece of property out here, the ranger said, as he offered his hand to shake. Im Dave Brown. I suppose you know there are some pretty dangerous natural conditions youll need to look out for.

Enrico shook Daves hand as he asked, And what does that mean? Dave took a big breath. Well, you should know about this if you guys are planning to live here. Theres the flood. Thats real serious this time of year. Therere two creeks you have to drive through that rise fast and wild when theres a lot of rain. The water turns black and fierce. You could get trapped in here for weeks.

Enrico and I exchanged worried looks. We had not known about this. Also, he continued, as you probably know, there are rattlesnakes, coyotes, bobcats, and black bears. The bears wont bother you much if you keep your food well covered. But the mountain lions Dave trailed off, as he looked at our young daughter. If you suspect there are any about, better keep your little girl close by.

I glanced at Francesca to see if she was listening. She was busy poking the dry dirt with a stick, her red corduroy cuffs turning brown with dust. I wasnt sure I wanted her to hear all this. I wasnt sure I wanted to hear it. I imagined grabbing a stick of my own and drawing pictures in the worn shoulder of the last bit of paved road.