Love this new series from New York-based photographer Sayuri Ichida. Featuring “Mayu,” a New York-based ballet dancer and fellow immigrant from Japan, Ichida’s images diverge from typical dancer portraits — taking “Mayu” away from the formality of the stage and placing her outdoors.

Similarly, in order to further convey a sense of their shared displacement and struggles as single women living abroad, Ichida purposefully treats Mayu as an object in a frame, challenging her to go outside her comfort zone and do things differently than her formal training as a ballerina. As Ichida explains:

“Everything she does as a dancer is so beautiful, so I asked her to not be too beautiful.”

See more from the fantastic series below.