BEYOND THE MAT : PORTA CO-FOUNDERS FRANCESCA DEL BALZO & ALICE RUSSOTTI
interviewed by Kimberley Cowans
Francesca Del Balzo & Alice Russotti
Photo Credit: Brett Warren
Hello Francesca and Alice, we love having you practice with us and being part of our community. We’re thrilled to know more about your lives in Brooklyn beyond the mat.
KC: What’s your heritage and how did you end up in Brooklyn?
FRANCESCA DEL BALZO -
FDB: Alice and I both grew up in London, in families that were a mix of Italian, English and American, and whose lives were closely intertwined. Our parents were great friends, and much of our childhood unfolded around the same tables - long lunches that drifted into the afternoon, crowded dinners, and the particular rituals and eccentricities that accompanied them. We absorbed, almost by osmosis, the wonderfully idiosyncratic ways in which our mothers entertained: the objects they collected, the tables they set, and the seemingly instinctive way they made a house feel generous, spirited and alive.
We both went on to Brown, a few years apart, and spent much of our twenties traveling and living elsewhere before our paths converged again in Brooklyn. By then, we were both married to Americans and beginning families of our own. We had always remained in one another’s orbit, but it was over one of our annual catch-up dinners that the beginnings of PORTA emerged.
As we began making homes of our own, we found ourselves drawn instinctively to the things we had grown up around - objects with a sense of provenance and personality; pieces that were useful but never merely utilitarian, and that carried with them a certain European attitude towards the home and the table. Yet much of what felt familiar to us was surprisingly difficult to find in Brooklyn, or indeed in the US at all.
PORTA began as our answer to that absence: a way of bringing together the objects, makers and traditions we loved, and of carrying forward the particular approach to home and hospitality that had shaped us from the beginning.
KC: PORTA is the destination for those who want to bring quality, joy and lasting impressions to gatherings and the home. Who would be your 5 dinner party guests at a PORTA table, dead or alive?
FDB: My father, Dolly Parton, John Cleese, Richard Serra and Meryl Streep.
KC: How would you describe your personal taste?
FDB: Tailored, simple, and at times a little bit unexpected.
KC: Inanimate objects can hold the power to give us energy, answers, inspiration, evoke welcome emotions, and ground us. Do you have a treasured PORTA object that holds such powers?
FDB:The Hugo money pot - a beautiful object that can sit quietly in my children's bedroom or take center stage in the kitchen. In either location it patiently collects coins until it is full to the brim and then the only way to retrieve them is to smash it open - A playful nod to saving and the joy of delayed gratification.
KC: Do you remember your first yoga class? Where was it?!
FDB: I do. I was about nine years old, and the class took place at home in London, with my mother and a teacher she was very close to. What I remember most is not the physical practice, but the feeling in the room - the sense of being collectively focused, aware of the presence of others, my mother, the teacher, while simultaneously feeling completely centered and grounded within myself.
KC: At PREMA, our ‘Recipes For a Divine Life’ includes a variety of Yoga, Pilates and Dance. When you feel called, which movement practices do you reach for?
FDB: I love yoga and dance cardio equally, but for completely different reasons. One day, I’ll crave the profound quiet of a yoga classroom - the feeling of being able to surrender completely to the practice, to turn inward and really release myself. The next, I’ll want the exact opposite: a room full of wildly energized women, music blazing, bodies moving, heat and adrenaline building, everyone giving it everything.I need both.
KC: What’s your ideal way to detach and wind down from the demands of the day?
FDB: On my bed, alone. I’m almost always with someone, doing something, moving, living life as though I’m on a video that’s been sped up slightly. Sometimes, I simply need to flop.
If I really have the time, I’ll draw a warm bath, add some delicious geranium bath oil, put on a show or get lost in a good book. But honestly, there’s something wonderfully restorative about simply getting into bed, closing the door on the day and doing absolutely nothing.
KC: When you have to jet off, which 3 essential items do you bring with?
FDB: An incredible eye mask, my favorite face / body oil by Living Libations (you can get it at PREMA in a perfect travel size), and a phone charger (let’s be real!).
KC: What’s a piece of advice you’ve been given that you keep going back to?
FDB: “If you can fix it, why worry? If you can’t fix it, why worry?”
KC: Which book(s) do you have on the go right now?
FDB: I have a 4 month old baby so I have not had a lot of reading time of late, but my favorite books I read this year were Heart the Lover by Lily King and God of the Woods by Liz Moore.
KC: Favorite place to grab a bite/drink in Brooklyn?
FDB: I love Smør for lunch - especially after a class at PREMA!
KC: You get to choose 1 record for a short weekend cabin stay - what will it be?
FDB: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours - works every time
Thank you so much for chatting with us, Francesca! Looking forward to seeing you on the mat soon.
Francesca Del Balzo & Alice Russotti
Photo Credit: Brett Warren
ALICE RUSSOTTI
KC: What’s your heritage and how did you end up in Brooklyn?
AR: I grew up in London with an American father and a mother from a big Italian family, and I went to boarding school in England. With an American father, university in the US always felt somewhat destined after my English upbringing. That brought me to New York often, and my boyfriend, now husband, is from Brooklyn, so it became our base for all our adventures around the city.
I love the rhythm and energy of New York, but I’ve realized I need the homecoming and domesticity of Brooklyn. It has always felt like both a launch pad and somewhere to return to. Now, with kids and school, that has deepened into a real sense of community, knowing the people around you and being known by them. I think that’s quite a remarkable thing to have within a city this big. Brooklyn lets you be part of the wild and wonderful mix of New York without being swallowed up by it.
KC: Who would be your five dinner party guests at a PORTA table, dead or alive?
AR: Can I do 12?! I think that the below gang would blow my mind, and bring to the table chatter that is funny, observant, profoud and expansive with a lens on how we live.
Nora Ephron, Josephine Baker, Quincy Jones, Isabella Rossellini, David Sedaris, Patti Smith, Krista Tippett, John O'Donohue, David Hockney, Esther Perel, David Attenborough and Zadie Smith.
KC: I mean, you can do 13 if I can come too!! This is a heckuva gathering of hearts and minds. How would you describe your personal taste?
AR: I love texture and warmth, but I don’t like clutter. I need a little restraint and breathing room. I’m drawn to deep, rich colors that feel grounding and things that have a tactile quality. I personally don’t generally like pattern as I find too much of it visually noisy (but appreciate when others can handle it well), however, I will always love a stripe. What I’m looking for is a certain balance: a room should feel warm and lived-in, but still calm without being boring. I want to feel the presence of the things in it without feeling overwhelmed by them and I actually think that restraint allows the objects you really love to have more power.
KC: Talking of power, do you have a treasured PORTA object that you’re magnetically drawn to thanks to restraint?
I love our Todia coffee cup. It’s incredibly simple (just terracotta) but it’s the perfect size for my morning coffee and it gives me great joy. Whether that comes from the cup itself, the coffee, or the moment of quiet it accompanies, I’m not sure. Probably a combination of all three. I think objects become imbued with the meaning we give them. The things we use over and over become attached to particular people, places and moments in our lives. That little cup has become part of a morning ritual I treasure, and I suppose that’s what makes it much more than just a cup.
KC: Do you remember your first yoga class? Where was it?!
AR: I don’t remember my first yoga class, but I remember when I really fell in love with it. I was back in London after university and going to the Life Centre. What struck me was that the physical practice felt inseparable from the philosophy behind it — the movement was a way into something quieter and more contemplative, rather than the end in itself.
There was chanting and humming, breath and stillness alongside the physical challenge, and I found the combination incredibly powerful. I think contemporary yoga can sometimes become very focused on strength and form, whereas those classes gave me a sense of yoga as a much broader practice - a way of paying attention and quieting the noise. I’ve been searching for that particular feeling in a yoga class ever since.
At PREMA, our ‘Recipes For a Divine Life’ include a variety of Yoga, Pilates and Dance. When you feel called, which movement practices do you reach for?
AR: Yoga, always, because I think it has it all: focus, movement, calm and challenge. There’s something about having to concentrate on the breath and the body at the same time that makes everything else recede for a while. I can really release myself into it. I love Pilates too, and dance always, but yoga gives me something beyond the physical. I can arrive distracted or tired or completely in my head and almost always leave feeling different. If I could only take one practice with me forevermore, it would be yoga.
KC: What’s your ideal way to detach and wind down from the demands of the day?
AR: Walking. I also love bed with a book and a cup of tea either alone or with my sons as I try to get them to tell me about their days. Sometimes they’re very forthcoming and sometimes I get almost nothing, but I’ll take whatever I can get. I think all of those things do the same thing for me in different ways, bringing the world back down to a smaller scale. After a day of thinking about a hundred different things, there’s something very grounding about walking, reading, or just lying next to your children listening to whatever they’re willing to tell you.
KC: When you have to jet off, which three essential items do you bring with you?
AR: Great pajamas, an eye mask and magnesium. I used to be able to sleep absolutely anywhere, but as I get older I increasingly need a contained little sleep environment. I think those familiar things create just enough regularity to tell my body that the day is over, wherever I happen to be. Travel is wonderful because it disrupts your routines, but apparently I now require a tiny routine within the disruption!
KC: What’s a piece of advice you’ve been given that you keep going back to?
AR: Recently someone told me to stop doing things I don’t want to do — and not to feel bad about it. I also love “no is a complete sentence.” I’m an enthusiastic championer of other people, which I think is a good quality, but the other side of that can be saying yes too quickly or taking responsibility for everyone else’s feelings. I’m learning that generosity and boundaries aren’t actually in opposition to one another. Still a work in progress!
KC: Which book(s) do you have on the go right now?
AR: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi is on my nightstand. I just finished The Dutch House by Ann Patchett after reading her other novel Whistler and realizing I’d somehow never read that oldie but goodie. Michael Pollan’s A World Appears is on my Audible, and The Wild Edge of Sorror by psychotherapist Francis Weller is next up. My brother also told me that Land by Maggie O’Farrell is the book of the summer “for those in the know,” so naturally that’s now waiting for me too. My reading is usually a slightly unruly combination of what I’m curious about, what someone has pressed into my hands, and what I feel I ought to have read years ago. If I can sneak Land in before the end of the month, I think it still counts as a summer read.
KC: It certainly does in subtropical New York City! Favourite place to grab a bite/drink in Brooklyn?
AR: The Long Island Bar for a drink and Hibino for a bite.
You get to choose one record for a short weekend cabin stay — what will it be?
AR: Nina Simone. For a weekend away, I want something I can leave playing on repeat in the background but that still creates a bit of a mood. Nina Simone has that rare ability to be at once atmospheric, completely arresting and fun.
She certainly does... thank you for sharing all these absolute gems with us, Alice.
You can keep up with PORTA on IG @porta_nyc and shop their goods for the home online via porta-nyc.com and in person at 360 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Photo Credit: Brett Warren | @ brettwarren
KC | PREMA BROOKLYN
