Monthly Archives: April 2020

BEAUTIFUL BALLET CLASS@HOME

Margot Fonteyn, in the 1960s. After her retirement, she said that she did her barre everyday. It was “like saying my prayers.”

The Lively Foundation meets your needs to keep moving and stay fit during this time of sheltering in place. Our Artistic Director, Leslie Friedman, now offers an Adult Ballet class Tuesdays, 4 – 5 P.M. using the Zoom platform. The class is designed to use little space. It includes a thorough barre plus brief dance phrases which may be done in place or with very little travel through space. Everyone, Pros to Beginners, does barre exercises in ballet. It is the universal language. All ages, all levels of experience do the barre work daily or once a week; it is always the same. It offers so many benefits: work on your core and leg strength, breathe deeply, lift your posture, gain flexibility and self-confidence. And, maybe best of all, it is something you can do all your life.  Price:  $15 per class. Pay for 3 classes; get the 4th one free.  Contact: livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net

KEEPING QUIET, BY PABLO NERUDA

Now we will count to twelve/and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,/let’s not speak in any language;/let’s stop for one second,/and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment/without rush, without engines; we would all be together/in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea/would not harm whales/and the man gathering salt/would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,/wars with gas, wars with fire,/victories with no survivors,/would put on clean clothes/and walk about with their brothers/in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused/with total inactivity./Life is what it is about;/I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single minded/about keeping our lives moving,/and for once could do nothing,/perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness/of never understanding ourselves/and of threatening ourselves with death. /Perhaps the earth can teach us/as when everything seems dead/and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count to twelve/and you keep quiet and I will go.

–Pablo Neruda

With thanks to the Center for Biological Diversity which sent this poem by post card with a picture of a red fox.

Pablo Neruda, in Argentina, 1971