Workouts are child’s play at his gymnasium
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.
Even now, Levi’s best advertisement is the personal recommendations that pass from parent to parent.
One of those parents at Levi’s gym recently was Michelle Pierce, 38, of Los Angeles, who takes one of her four children to one of Levi’s classes.
“We heard about him through a good friend,” Pierce said. “He’s a big hit with our kids, who think he’s very cool. He can relate to a child’s brain. He can reach them on their level.”
Another parent, 43-year-old Lisa Block, also heard about Levi by word of mouth. She said her 5-year-old daughter, Zoe, “loves this more than anything.” Levi, she said, “is well rounded and entertaining. My daughter comes home saying she wants to eat healthy and exercise.”
A permanent site for a gym eluded Levi for five years. Part of that problem was the unusual set of needs his facility had compared with other small businesses. For his dream gym, Levi said, he needed 3,000 to 6,000 square feet to house all of the equipment and enough parking spaces for a good-sized restaurant. He also needed 15-foot ceilings to allow high jumps on a trampoline.
On the rare occasions that a broker found that kind of combination, the landlord didn’t want children in the building, much less children flying through the air on gym equipment.
“I had three real estate brokers give up on me,” Levi said.
Finally he decided to look for a site on his own. He picked out 15 possible locations and called them. The third owner fancied himself as a man willing to take chances on new businesses, Levi said. The fact that there was a skateboard shop with a practice ramp on the building’s first floor was also a good sign.
Levi is convinced that he has made the right move into an area of great need: “getting kids off to a healthy start, fighting childhood obesity and making sure they have fun doing it,” he said.
Still, there are parents who think he ought to be setting his sights even higher. One recently suggested that he start his own school. Levi seemed to consider the gravity of that recommendation before deciding to pass on it, at least for now.
“I like having your kids for an hour,” he said, “and then giving them back to you.”
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Superkids rundown
Business: Superkids: A Healthy Start gym; Dan the Man’s Superduper Gym on Wheels; Superkids Birthday Parties; Dan the Man Camp (summer, winter and spring)
Owner: Daniel Levi
Employees: Two full-time, eight part-time
Cost: Initial outlay for the gym was more than $90,000.
Goal: Encourage a healthy lifestyle for children
