By Pyc Fitness
©2004-2008
Jonah Graff regarded the barriers skeptically: a dark blue mountain twice his height, two bars that spanned a deep chasm and a wall that rose high above a light green sea. How to cross such an expanse?
But because it was Dan the Man telling him he could do it, he was willing to try -- as long as he got to sit in the baby bouncer first.
Jonah is 2 1/2 years old. The mountain was a pair of mattress-thick tumbling mats. The monkey bars that came next were barely five feet off the floor, and the sea was the soft foam safety cushions at the base of a standard rock climbing practice wall. All along, Jonah was supported by Dan's hands, but still allowed to do a little of the physical work himself.
The only person in the room who might have been more delighted than Jonah was his 25-year-old mother, Francine. She had tried and quickly soured on a larger and more strictly run gymnastics academy before trying the Superkids: A Healthy Start gym in West Los Angeles. It is the latest business venture run by Daniel Levi, otherwise known as Dan the Man.
"This is much more geared toward smaller children," Francine Graff said. "It's dynamic and fun, and there's something in his eyes when he's with the children. He's involved. He's engaged. You know he is making sure your child is safe."
For Levi, 30, the 6-month-old gym provides quite a workout and is a testament to his determination.
He runs the Superkids gym during the week and on weekends choreographs and often performs at Superkids children's birthday parties while overseeing Dan the Man's Superduper Gym on Wheels, which he started in 2002. The birthday party operation is booked through December, Levi said, with waiting lists on many dates running as many as four parents deep.
And that's not all. Levi also runs camps: five weeks during the summer at a school in Santa Monica, and two-week camps during winter and spring school breaks. He works every day and is bringing in about $7,000 a week but expects revenue to increase as the gym becomes better known.
"When my day is done, I go home, eat and go to sleep. I'm tired," Levi said. "It doesn't feel real."
The fact that it hasn't sunk in yet, and his unwillingness to ease up on any aspect of his four-part business, are symptoms of how difficult it was to reach this point. As Levi put it: "I don't think I can afford to give anything up yet."
Twelve years ago, Levi was suddenly an ex-gymnast in Rockland County, N.Y., nursing a broken wrist and no longer able to take advantage of an athletic scholarship to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
He attended Rockland Community College instead, and then took a cross-country drive to sort out the next goal of his life. He ended up in Venice and, drawing on years of work experience at gyms in New York and California, decided that what he really liked to do was teach gymnastics to young people.
Levi wanted something different from the kind of gym where he usually worked. They were either deadly serious gymnastics academies "that were very strict, even with 3-year-olds," he said, or they were indoor playgrounds for children that "weren't serious at all."
When he was unable to find the kind of gym he wanted to work at -- a place that could be "fun and silly and still incorporate fitness and gymnastics and exercise," he decided to create it himself.
"I wanted a kind of intermediate place that would be fun and not so serious but still teach kids about gymnastics and fitness and leading a healthy life," Levi said.
But by then, in 2002, "I had no credentials, no backing, no idea of how much it was going to cost, and not enough money anyway," Levi said. Through family help, he acquired some essentials: safety certification from USA Gymnastics, $5,000 in gym equipment and a $1-million liability insurance policy.
Over the following year he worked his way through public and private schools and community groups, sometimes offering to run a class for free to show prospective clients how they worked. Because he had enough insurance, he found people who were willing to give him a try.
Still, it was an exhausting way to do business."I had to set up the equipment everywhere I went and then break it down afterward and reload the truck. I stored equipment in my parking space of my apartment," Levi said.
But it worked. At every school and community center he took his gym to, and at every birthday party he ran, he met parents who saw how good he was with children and how effective his classes were.
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