By Eliza Ridgeway
 Instructor Leslie Friedman and 4-year-old Alison Hagen frolic at a Lively School dance class. |
“What are you? A dog? Oh my gosh, that’s terrific!” Leslie Friedman encouraged one of her pint-sized students. Not quite the pedagogy one imagines in a ballet class, but Friedman makes no bones about how her Lively School offers a new flavor in dance.
The school, held at the Mountain View Masonic Temple, is expanding this fall to offer age-group classes for children from 3 to 12 as well as a parent and child movement class, “You and Me Yoga,” for children 6 months to 5 years.
Classes for younger children focus on improving verbal ability and fostering creativity and self-confidence, Friedman said. “For some of them, it’s the first time they’ve been in a class. One of the things they’re learning is about being with other children in a class setting.”
During a class populated with 4-year-olds, Friedman and her students pranced around the room, kicking feet more or less in time to the music. One sock-clad boy danced out the door in his excitement and was summoned back by Friedman’s soft voice. The “dog” moment came later during class, when students would free-dance and then freeze on command in an imaginary shape.
Friedman’s adult classes provide a dance workout, fusing modern, ballet, jazz and movements from yoga and Pilates. Long-time student Myu Campbell said she came to the classes in search of physical activity that was fun.
“For those of us who weren’t athletic in high school, you say the word ‘gym’ and we cringe - this is a totally different experience,” Campbell said. “In order to do stuff in dance class, I actually do crunches at night, and nothing else in my life has ever made me do crunches, ever. Leslie is the most gentle and encouraging teacher of anything I’ve ever had.”
“I’m very concerned with the total person,” Friedman said. “I pay a lot of personal attention because each body is different. This is something a little different (from other workouts), because it says you are a dancer, too. This is how people feel beautiful.”
Friedman founded the non-profit Lively Foundation, which produces performance series and arts programs in the Bay Area, in 1983. The Lively School is an off-shoot of the foundation.
Friedman brings a background in international dance and teaching to the school, having performed in China, the former Soviet Union, India, Eastern Europe and beyond. She earned a Ph.D. in British history at Stanford and taught at Vassar and Case Western Reserve before returning to dance full time. She combines her academic background with modern dance both in writing and lecturing.
The Lively School’s newest venture is Promenade: Best Foot Forward, a dance and etiquette class for 6- to 9-year-olds facing the social world of birthday parties and family events.
The class teaches “polite behavior in a fun way,” Friedman said. “Part of the underlying message of the class is courtesy, and why simple, courteous behavior is the best foot forward. But it’s not presented in a didactic way at all. It will include music and dance and end with a great party.”
For more information, call 969-4110 or e-mail livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net.
