HEROIC, BELOVED: Lively’s Concerts for Women’s History

The first one was in March, 1996. HEROIC, BELOVED, a concert of dances about real, historic women, or set to music by women, with lyrics by women, or ideas about women. Every Spring season, 1996 – 2010, The Lively Foundation presented the concerts with new works, guest artists, at home or on tour. From the beginning, it was the FIRST and the ONLY concert for Women’s History Month AND the FIRST and the ONLY production by an arts group to aid breast cancer patients.

In San Francisco, the concerts included choreography by Leslie Friedman for company dancers with Leslie and solo performances by Leslie. On tour through the US, the concerts were all solo. Performances presented by universities and civic organizations appeared in California, Washington state, Iowa, multiple times in various cities of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee. Leslie’s dances included a dance about Harriet Tubman set to a song by the Oakland based group, Higher Ground; a dance with music by Edward Elgar written for a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning; music by Jon Deak for writing by Willa Cather; a song by Tina Turner dedicated to dancer Mary Craighill; Embrace Tiger, Return Rhinemaid to Mountain, a satirical dance for a Cole Porter song; a Brahms violin sonata for Clara, a dance about Clara Schumann; the velvety vocal of Miss Helen Humes’ ballad, Every Now and Then; the rousing spiritual, Come Down, Angels, written by Undine Smith Moore. And more: The Bats of Haworth, for example, a trio with music by Chopin and text from Charlotte Bronte.

“It amazed me when I got a call from some other dancers wanting to know who my funders were because they wanted to do a program like this, too!” recalls Leslie. “My funders?! I did the program because it needed to be done.

My first guest artist, opera singer Pamela Dillard, was beautiful. She sang Come Down, Angels with me dancing, too. She said she always ran in the Avon event in San Francisco and was delighted to help. At one performance, Gloria Guth Pasta, my dear friend from graduate school, came with her cancer support group. That was a moment to remember always. That was my ‘funding.'”

Picture: top:Leslie Friedman, Washington, D.C.; photo by Jonathan Clark; Pamela Dillard

LIVELY DANCE IN 1ST SILICON VALLEY ARTS SHOWCASE

Chinese Performing Arts of America–CPAA–invited The Lively Foundation to present a dance in the 1st Silicon Valley Arts Showcase, July 26, 2-3:30 p.m., at CPAA’s International Performing Arts Center, 6148 Bollinger Road, San Jose. It is an honor and very exciting to be included. Four beautiful dancers will perform Face to Face, a dance choreographed by Leslie Friedman for the Adagio for English Horn & Strings by Mozart. A wonderful group of dancers has been rehearsing the dance every day; now, the performance is about to begin! The program will include both Chinese and Western music and dance. At the same site, there is also an exhibition of painting and calligraphy which opens July 25. Pictures: In rehearsal at the Mountain View Masonic Center, Mountain View, CA, onstage, L to R: Natalie Duong, Katy Walter, Laila Waheed, Leelianna Fezli; standing, L to R: Leelianna Fezli, Laila Waheed, Natalie Duong, Katy Walter.

Leslie Friedman: WHY? BECAUSE, A Dance of World War I

The San Francisco Browning Society will present Leslie Friedman on Friday, May 8, 2 p.m. at The Sequoias, 1400 Geary Blvd., San Francisco. Dr. Friedman will give a talk about the creation of her dance, WHY? BECAUSE, and its relationship to World War I. She will also show the dance. The music is Sir Edward Elgar’s ‘Cello Concerto, the Adagio and Allegro movements. This two part dance was premiered as part of Dances at the Henge, part of the official programming of Britain Meets the Bay, organized by the British Council, in San Francisco. Tributes to this extraordinary dance have come from critics and audience members alike. Leslie Friedman received the Best Solo Performance Award from the Dean Goodman Choice Awards, 2001, for her performance of WHY? BECAUSE.

“In the first movement, she is a memorial come to life, carrying bouquets of red paper poppies made by veterans. In the second, she is the innocents, eager and young, who see horrors they could never anticipate. The vivid imagery of her inventive movement will never let me think of war without recalling this dancer who knows how to move as though she has lost her legs.”

Carmelita Ng, Ng on the Arts

photos: (L) Leslie Friedman in WHY? BECAUSE (R) Composer Sir Edward Elgar

It’s GOLD RUSH SEASON!

Meet Lailah Waheed (Left) and Skye Windsor (Right) Lively’s wonderful new dancers. They will perform THE GOLD RUSH! this spring. More than 30,000 students plus additional numbers of teachers and parents have enjoyed Lively’s production, THE GOLD RUSH! since we began offering it to schools in 2001. So far this season four Bay Area Schools have invited us to perform this educational and entertaining program. Lively will perform at the H. Green School, Fremont, CA; Junipero Serra School, Daly City; Ellis School, Sunnyvale; and Bishop School, Sunnyvale. At the Serra School, we will perform twice; once for the younger students and teachers, once for the older students and their teachers. We were thrilled when Teacher Melanie McDonald from the Green School, in Fremont, called way back in September to say, “Please come back and do it again! That was a fantastic assembly for our school.” We’re eager to bring it back: narration taken from letters written in the mining fields, songs and music that were 1850s hits, authentic costumes, great dances!

WWW. -WONDERFUL WINTER WORKSHOP/Schedule

Announcing the class schedule for WWW 1.0, our first Wonderful Winter Workshop of the International Dance Festival@Silicon Valley. Take all 8 classes, one will be FREE!!

Classes on Saturday, Jan. 18: from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Mtn.View Masonic Center, MV, 12:30 DUNHAM TECHNIQUE, LESLIE ARBOGAST;1:30 SALSA, LEANNE RINELLI; 2:30 PILATES MAT, AMITY JOHNSON; 3:30 CONTEMPORARY, LESLIE FRIEDMAN; 4:30 LINE DANCING, ETTA WALTON. All classes are mixed levels. NO partners needed for Salsa or Line Dancing.

Classes on Tuesday, Jan. 20, from 6 – 9 p.m. at the Mountain View Masonic Center, MV, CA 94041

6 p.m. DUNHAM TECHNIQUE, LESLIE ARBOGAST; 7 P.M. SALSA, LEANNE RINELLI; 8 P.M., LINE DANCING, ETTA WALTON.

DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO GET OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT FOR 2015! DANCE AND HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME! THE ARTIST/TEACHERS WANT TO HELP YOU SHINE! information: contact: The Lively Foundation, livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net

Pictures: Left: Etta Walton; Right: Leslie Friedman

BATS!!! Dance for BRACKEN CAVE

From 1990-2007, The Lively Foundation presented BAT TALES! annually in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. The program included premiere dances, theatre, original songs–all about bats. Most were based on legends about bats from many cultures; some based on legends we made up. Lucy & the Count: the Bat Ballet was choreographed for music by award winning composer, Jon Deak; Mine Bat, a two part solo dance was set to a story by Leslie Friedman and music by English composer Jonathan Harvey. Mine Bat was based on an article written by famed nature writer, William Stolzenburg. The article appeared in Nature Conservancy, the magazine of the international organization, the Nature Conservancy. Mr. Stolzenburg then wrote about Ms Friedman’s dance and story in another Nature Conservancy article. “At the time I first presented Lucy & the Count, with the Bat being the hero, no one paid any attention to bats. The whole program might have been considered wildly eccentric. Bats were only thought of as scary creatures getting caught in some lady’s hair,” says choreographer, Ms Friedman, “but now there is more consciousness of their beauty and their enormous contributions to human well being.” Lively’s annual performances contributed to the raising of that consciousness. Here’s the good news for all of us and especially for the bats: Bat Conservation International (based in Austin, TX) and The Nature Conservancy have managed to buy more than 1500 acres adjacent to Bracken Cave, near San Antonio. That land was going to be developed into many, many houses and other structures which would have meant curtains for the bats in Bracken Cave, home to the world’s largest population of Mexican Free-tailed bats. Millions of bats fly out of the cave at night to hunt insects. The bats are the most efficient pest control in the world. In the summer, the Bracken bats eat 140 TONS of insects EACH NIGHT. Throughout the US, bats save farmers about $23 billion in crop damage and reduced pesticide use. Three cheers for BCI, the Nature Conservancy and the BATS!!! It’s the best Halloween treat of all. Pictures courtesy BCI: Bats emerging from Bracken Cave, a bat visiting an agave. see also: www.nature.org and batcon.org and www.williamstolzenburg.com and www.jonathanharveycomposer.com and www.jondeak.com

Starbucks in Mountain View! Thank you!

The Lively Foundation asks everyone to patronize the businesses which so generously help Lively in our work. Please stand and cheer Ashley Whitlock, manager of the Starbucks on Castro St., Mountain View, CA. She has donated coffee (and cream, sugars, cups, stir sticks) for the International Dance Festival-Silicon Valley in all three seasons: 2012, 2013, 2014. She also helped The Festival of Lights, Dec. 2013, Lively’s Holidays concert. Ms Whitlock is a musician in addition to being a manager. She says she loves to help Lively help the arts. Thank you, Ms Whitlock! Dear Readers, now that you have stood up and cheered for her kindness, please stop at Starbucks on Castro@ High School in Mtn. View, enjoy a latte, a bear claw, a sandwich, and remember that IDF-SV 2015 comes soon. Here’s Ashley Whitlock:

Posh Bagel Mountain View: THANK YOU!

Great big thanks to The Posh Bagel on Castro St., in Mountain View, CA. For all three seasons they have supported the International Dance Festival@Silicon Valley by donating many varieties of many, MANY bagels. We set these out all day for the Full Day of Dance© participants and before the Festival Concert and during intermission for the audience to enjoy. We are so grateful to Marie, the lovely and generous manager, and her team. Support our Supporters! Visit The Posh Bagel for a great lunch, morning coffee and bagels, special treats throughout the day. Here is Marie at The Posh Bagel and Marie with her team. They are all as talented as they are good looking!The Lively Foundation says,”THANKS!”

Gold Rush in Fremont!

Bringing The Gold Rush! to the Brookvale School, Fremont, CA, was a fantastic way to close this spring season. Wonderful students and teachers filled the auditorium. The Lively Foundation performers truly hit it out of the park; a great performance by dancers Amity Johnson & Audreyanne Delgado Covarrubias, singer & banjo player Jonathan Clark. Ms Johnson & Ms Covarrubias also narrate comments originally written by people living in the mining fields. Mr. Clark is the tech director setting up and running the sound (recorded narrations, music for the dances) and projections of the archival photographs, engravings, paintings which HE researched, found, photographed and made into slides for our absolutely unique, wonderful show. Director Leslie Friedman choreographed the dances, narrates, and wrote the show. She dances in Sweet Betsy From Pike which is appropriate as both Sweet Betsy and Leslie are Californians originally from Missouri. Here are pictures of some of the Broncos from Brookvale, teachers and performers. Thanks to teacher Laura Dean for organizing this great event!Top: two of the classes attending The Gold Rush! May 30, 2014. Bottom row, L to R: Audreyanne Covarrubias, Amity Johnson backstage preparing to perform.

Lively’s Gold Rush comes to Fremont!

The Lively Foundation presented its rousing performance, The Gold Rush! at the Harvey Green School, Fremont, CA, April 4, 2014. Response was tremendous for this entertaining and painlessly educational show. The students had a lottery to see who would get to be in a picture with the performers. Here are the winning students, performers Audreyanne Covarrubias, Jonathan Clark, Amity Johnson, and teacher Melanie MacAdams. Ms MacAdams already told us she wants us back next year. The Gold Rush is part of the core curriculum for California students. The Lively Foundation has supported educators and students with our amazing program since 2000.