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