We recently connected with Galit Friedlander and have shared our conversation below.

Galit, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I’m going to focus on my work as a dance teacher here. My mom is a long-time teacher (I learned a lot from example) and in my formative years, I assisted a teacher, Jonathan Lee, at Steps NYC. I also consistently taught my friends things I had learned whether it was from going to the gym and working out with a trainer or something from dance class. For many of us, we develop our skillsets on friends.

The biggest lessons in teaching came from DOING. Once I was in Los Angeles, I taught in different settings and to varied ages, levels, and backgrounds. It was not for the faint of heart. I had a studio owner pull me apart in my earlier years, someone walked out of class one time when I was subbing…the feedback was real in both the positive and the negative. The best thing I did was learn from ALL of it. I took them as opportunities to grow and do better. Tears and all, I grew.

It’s hard to say how I would have sped up the process because teaching is such an experiential activity. However, I think that if I assisted more before jumping fully in, I would have had even more blueprints to pull from before creating my own.

The most essential skills were timeliness, excellent communication (the basics!), learning my audience quickly, and being able to pivot with alacrity. You never know if the room will match what you expect.

One of the biggest obstacles that stood in the way of me learning more was the idea that once I am a teacher I need to be ‘fully cooked’ as a student. I made the mistake of taking fewer dance classes as a student because I thought that once you focus on teaching, you take fewer classes. On the contrary, I think that being a student keeps your skill set fresh and connects you even more with your students.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Okay, I need to own this outright…I do a lot. I’ve been working with my portfolio of offerings as a dance teacher, choreographer, podcaster, and personal trainer for years. I’m going to spare you on the personal training because I will geek out hard, start talking about scapular stabilizers – and I need us to focus.

Teaching Dance/Choreography – Born, raised, and trained in New York City, the birthplace of hip-hop, my background included half of my training from the traditional studio environment and the other half from the ‘underground’ scene. I call it ‘underground’ because I think New York in its truest form is an underground brought into daily life ABOVE the ground. When I’m teaching dance I am bringing in information from the mix of mentors and teachers I had. From Tyrone ‘the Bone’ Proctor, a Soul Train dancer, who taught me Waackin, to Emilieta Ettlin who trained us in proper alignment from her ballet background. When I choreograph, I am pulling from a pot that includes everything from going to the club in the early 2000’s to watching Alvin Ailey perform every year at the City Center.

I’ve been told I am patient but I don’t see it that way. When I walked into my first dance class as a 12-year-old (not counting hopping around in ballet when I was 6), I found it challenging to follow the warm-up and nearly impossible to do anything after those first 20 minutes. That is what makes me believe in my students.

As a choreographer, I am taking all of the contradictions that formed me in my early years and have a vast background to make some mother fluffin ART!

What I’m focusing on now is bringing dance to hard-working, driven, busy women in the workforce (and stay-at-home mom is included here, because that is hard work!). I’ve worked on tours, live shows, music videos, etc. and I want my ladies to have a space for themselves to feel in their bodies, to sweat, to not have to be perfect, and to JAM! I don’t think that the market does enough for women, especially after their 20s. I think one of the biggest constraints is time and energy, so I am looking at ways to bring my dance workshops to work spaces, conferences, and beyond.

One of the things that I am most proud of is my 6 years as a Lead Choreographer for the WNBA’s LA Sparks. I was in charge of the SparKids, which means I had a group of dancers ages 6-14 who were working as pro dancers on this job. I had minimal time to choreograph, teach, and set formations to my darling dancers, who were at all different levels. I created a multitude of pieces that were featured at the Staples Center/Crypto.com arena and I was able to work with the youth and teach them lessons that can extend outside of the dance realm.

AND my podcast. It’s called DanceSpeak. I have over 200 interviews with thrivers in and around the dance world. The conversations are raw, unfiltered, delicious and you can listen on Spotify + Apple Podcasts.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The arts need to be funded. Government funded. And for individuals and companies who have the mulaw (money), investing in the arts is investing back into your communities. It provides education, and jobs, and we need it in society. Art is part of what moves us all forward.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Time for a pandemic story! One of my long-time hats has been as a personal trainer. Fitness fits into my life as something I took on to help me with dance and then kept on with…and then started teaching (go figure)…and then years later I have my clients and enjoy the fruits of knowing how to train my body and other bodies to be its/their best for dance.

The year is 2020 and I am sitting in my brother and sister-in-law’s kitchen in NJ. I had absconded from a deep solitude in LA to be with family for what turned into a few months. Something to know about my sis-in-law, Tania Friedlander, is that her work is in up-leveling executives and entrepreneurs (note: there might be a category I am missing here, Tania, forgive me!). So, we are at the table and someone stops by to say hello from 10 feet away outdoors. She hears about what I do professionally and then shares that her trainer has been giving a group of folks workout videos since social distancing began.

When we re-enter the kitchen, Tania says that that would be a great idea for me. I tell her no, I don’t want to, I’ll probably fail and it’s too much to know what I’m doing. By the end of the conversation, I am listing out my first 3 steps and within a month have a large group of folks that I am sending workouts to around the world.

Creating my own videos prepared me for on-line dance classes and clients not too long after. I also now have an on-demand series out there (GoGalit.com: online fitness course) and have over 100 videos in the vault!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.GoGalit.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gogalit/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/galit-friedlander-9a5741b8
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoGalit
• Other: https://www.dancespeakpodcast.com/

Image Credits

Adel R. Emata
Christine Bisquera