By KAREN WILSON Palisadian-Post Intern Emeritus She was facing her first press line and she’d made a faux pas: forgetting to remove the backstage pass from around her neck. But instead of acting embarrassed, Marie Digby tossed the pass off to the side and continued smiling for the cameras. ‘I’m such a dork!’ she proclaimed, and something rare happened’a group of journalists bonded with the girl on the other side of the rail. Meet Digby, a 21-year-old Marymount graduate who last week debuted at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom as the winner of Pantene’s Pro-Voice Contest, which sends one lucky winner (out of 1,200 applicants) to the aptly named Pro-Voice Concert. There, before a crowd of 2,000 New Yorkers and this reporter, Digby shared the stage with bestselling recording artists Ashanti, Fefe Dobson, Paulina Rubio and Skye Sweetnam. The annual event was founded as a way to get women’s voices heard, and this year’s unlikely feminist came in the lithe form of a softspoken tennis player-cum-musician from Mandeville Canyon. A piano player since age 4, as well as a former competitive tennis player, Digby grew up in Pacific Palisades and attended Village School. She began writing songs as a teenager, at a time when she felt lonely, left out and as if she didn’t fit in. ‘I turned to music as a way to express the things I was going through,’ Marie said. By the time she left home for UC Berkeley in 2001, Digby could play piano and guitar, and had stockpiled an arsenal of songs. Socially active and happy with college life, Digby was taking some time off to pursue her music career when she was contacted by a friend in Tennessee, who had seen an ad for Pantene Pro-Voice on television and wanted his pal to enter. ‘I totally didn’t take it seriously,’ Digby recalls. ‘I sent my application in on the day before the deadline.’ ”The shampoo company asked competitors to include music and lyrics for one of their self-penned tunes; Marie selected ‘Miss Invisible’, which described her experiences eating under the bleachers during junior high school lunch to hide from her teenage tormentors. One week later, a Pantene rep phoned and informed Digby that she was one of three girls selected as the Pro-Voice finalists. ‘I almost fell out of bed,’ she said. The ensuing weeks were a whirlwind, as the girls filmed individual music video-style television commercials asking viewers to make one of them the lucky winner. The contest’s grand prize included two tickets to MTV’s Video Music Awards, $5,000 cash, and a chance to perform in the Pro-Voice concert in New York City. Marie’s spot, which aired constantly on MTV and featured the aspiring songwriter playing the piano and singing the ballad, ‘Miss Invisible,’ sparked 30,000 music lovers to go online and vote for her, handing her the Pantene crown. And that’s how, on August 5, Digby found herself somewhere in the bowels of the Hammerstein Ballroom in midtown Manhattan, posing for the cameras on a dingy, ‘this is Hollywood?’ red carpet. Sheepishly, the green Digby told photographers she didn’t know what ‘look straight out’ meant (stare right in front of you, smiling wide) and confessed to this reporter that she was ‘so, so nervous,’ more so about facing the press than she was about her five-song set, which would come later in the evening. She may have thought herself awkward, but Marie’s media outing earned her nothing but praise from the men and women behind the lenses. ‘She’s well-poised, and she’s beautiful. She’s gonna go a long way,’ Retina photographer Carmen Valdes said, as Digby skipped off for a quick break. Later, Digby re-hit the press line, more relaxed this time, thanks to new company. The platinum artists sharing the bill with her that night-Ashanti, Fefe Dobson, Paulina Rubio (accompanied by her beloved dog) and Skye Sweetnam-all descended on the red carpet to preen and give interviews. And they couldn’t have been more fond of the newcomer in their midst. ‘She plays the piano, which is very, very awesome,’ Dobson said. ‘And she’s obviously really passionate to be able to enter a contest, and have that will, so I can’t wait to see [her perform]. She got here. This is a big step and not many people can do that, and I think that it’s an awesome, awesome start.’ ”Also stopping by to sing Marie’s praises was Ashanti, one of the biggest R&B stars in America today. ‘I think it’s a great thing that she’s original,’ she said. ‘That’s very important [in terms of] breaking a new artist into the industry.’ When asked what she thought of Digby’s music and its message of ‘rise above those who get you down,’ Ashanti added that she thought ‘it’s such a positive thing, and it’s important, because you have to have it inside you to be in this industry.’ And did the diva think Marie has it? ‘Yeah,’ she said, winking. Before her set, Digby camped out in the wings with Dobson, who gave the contest winner a pep talk. ‘She told me to get out there and have fun,’ Marie said. ‘I was really nervous, just trying to breathe. But the minute I stepped on stage, the fright was just gone.’ Encouraging shouts from the audience of ‘Okay, Miss Invisible!’ and ‘You go, girl!’ also helped guide Digby as she played and sang her way though five original, deeply personal songs. ”Afterwards, she was rushed backstage to tape an interview with MTV anchor LaLa, as part of a Pro-Voice segment set to air this Sunday at noon on the cable channel. She was then approached by a group of autograph hunters. ‘I think I had more fun signing than they did getting my signature,’ Digby said later. Back in the dressing room, she received congratulations from friends and her parents (Matthew, an attorney and Emiko, a homemaker) and teenage sisters Naomi and Erina, who all took their newly minted singing star out to a nearby diner for some celebratory sweets. ‘It was just an amazing evening,’ Digby said. ”Now back home, she’s pursuing music full-time, both in the recording studio (working with a well-known producer as part of her Pantene prize package) and traveling with a mall tour for up-and-coming musicians, sponsored by YM magazine. ‘My number one goal,’ she says, ‘is to make an album that’s truly a piece of art.’ (Karen Wilson, a PaliHi graduate, began writing for the Palisadian-Post as a seventh grader at Paul Revere. She is spending her summer in New York City as an intern at Entertainment Weekly magazine. She will be a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara this fall.)

Most Angelenos are familiar with the sight of people filing into yoga studios, mat under arm or slung over the shoulder in a cozy carrying bag. Add strollers to the mix and you have the scene at JIVA Yoga Studio, where moms gather for Patti Asad’s Mommy & Me class’an hour and 15 minutes of strengthening and toning exercises that includes parent-and-child bonding through massage, yoga, singing and dancing. ‘We touch on every body part, plus we have time to connect with our babies,’ says Asad, 33, mother of 6-month-old Gabriella. A Palisades resident, Asad has been teaching prenatal yoga as well as adult classes since the studio opened on Sunset in January. She started Mommy & Me two months ago, after she realized she couldn’t bring Gabriella with her to any yoga classes. ‘I developed a sequence [of yoga postures] and found what worked for strengthening my body,’ she says. ‘And I thought, ‘I have to give this back to mommies’.’ Asad recommends that mothers take about six weeks to recuperate before starting the class, which focuses on strengthening the body parts affected during pregnancy and increasing flexibility. She teaches basic postures that strengthen the hips, abdominal muscles, arms, glutes and quads, as well as the chest, upper and lower back, since nursing and carrying a baby can put a lot of pressure on those areas. Babies also benefit from the class as mothers gently move their infants into certain postures that loosen the spine, back and shoulder areas, and help prepare them for crawling. ‘Babies are born yogis,’ says Asad, who earned her master’s degree in education from the University of Miami. ‘We work their bodies to keep them flexible.’ According to Asad, a mother’s touch can provide her child with a healing energy. For this reason, at the beginning of class, moms rub their hands together to create heat and then place their palms on their babies’ backs to make a connection. ‘Your baby’s going to be your guide,’ Asad tells the 11 moms and one dad in her class on a recent morning. ‘Your baby’s going to tell you if you should be slowing down or speeding up your pace.’ As the parents begin on their hands and knees in cat’s tilt, alternately arching their backs and lifting their chests while they inhale and exhale, the babies lie on their backs on mats or blankets, watching them. Some moms take a break to hold or nurse their babies. ‘If they are fussy or need to eat, it’s okay, because everyone’s in the same situation,’ says Palisadian Jennifer Munakash, who took Asad’s prenatal yoga class and then started Mommy & Me with her son, Oliver, when he was about 8 weeks old. ‘Oliver loves the music and he loves looking at other babies.’ For parents like Munakash, Mommy & Me yoga is important because ‘I don’t have any help [to take care of Oliver] so it’s nice to get out and exercise and meet other mothers.’ Throughout the class, Asad plays a mix of songs, from the Beatles’ ‘Across the Universe’ and John Lennon’s ‘Beautiful Boy’ to music by Bob Marley and Ben Harper. Her soothing voice complements the music as she instructs parents on how to perform the various postures, and then walks around the room holding some of the babies so the moms can participate. ‘Patti’s amazing,’ says another Palisades mom, Eve Gottesman, who comes to the class with her 6-month-old son, Matthew. ‘She has a child the same age [as mine] and relates so well because she’s right in it.’ The children, who range in age from 6 weeks to a year, visibly enjoy watching their parents move into the different postures, and are especially captivated when the moms are on one knee with their arms raised to the ceiling, stretching their bones and abdominal muscles. Some of the children make squeaking and squealing sounds while others just stare quietly in awe. ‘Your babies are fascinated watching you right now because light is coming off your arms and fingers,’ says Asad, who wears a tank top with a photo of daughter Gabriella on the front. Later, she explains that ‘yoga teaches us we have a body of lights…there is a deeper light within us, and when we start to breathe and to dance, babies see that light.’ Much of Asad’s Mommy & Me yoga work was inspired by a book called ‘Bountiful, Beautiful, Blissful’ by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, co-founder and director of Golden Bridge Yoga Center in Los Angeles. Asad has also taken classes with Gurmukh, who writes in her book, ‘Children born now are on the vanguard of the Age of Aquarius. Sometimes called ‘indigo babies’ for the deep blue of the aura they are said to radiate, these children are more aware and present an evolution in spiritual consciousness…Let our mission as parents be to help them reach their potential greatness.’ Asad says that ‘giving babies the gift of yoga is honoring that higher consciousness.’ The second part of her class is devoted mainly to the children, who, by this time, appear to be more active. ‘Let’s take advantage of our babies being more awake right now and sing with them,’ says Asad, who explains that ‘babies respond to and are stimulated by singing, dancing and moving.’ For the first song, the popular ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ parents place their hands on their babies’ thighs and move their legs together in a circular motion while they sing. Then, they use their legs to lifts their bottoms up and down, and from side to side. During ‘Open, Shut Them,’ moms clap their babies’ feet together and crawl their fingers up their babies’ chest. ‘Skin-on-skin contact is so important for you and your babies,’ Asad reminds the class. She teaches the parents how to use their thumbs to massage pressure points on the bottoms of their children’s feet. ‘You’re stimulating different nerve endings in the body,’ she tell them as they touch the tiny arches, heels and toe pads. While the children are lying on their backs, parents bring their babies’ toes to their noses, and then turn them on their tummies to do ‘heels to tush.’ Massaging their kids from spine to toes, the parents sing ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider.’ ‘Mommy’s not that flexible,’ says Kimberley Goldman, who comes to Mommy & Me with her 4-month-old son, Nathaniel. ‘This is good for flexibility and a lot of the exercises we do in class, you can do with your baby at home.’ The four-year Palisades resident also says she was ‘dying for a class in the vicinity.’ After hearing about the class, Goldman’s neighbor, Gabrielle Brumbach, started bringing her daughter, Sydney. ‘It’s been my introduction to yoga,’ says Brumbach, who enjoys ‘getting out of the house with Sydney, getting a workout in and seeing different people and babies.’ As Asad lowers the lights, she instructs the group to stand up with their babies and form a circle. ‘This is your dance party with your baby,’ she says. ‘Let them see other babies.’ After some free dancing, the parents bend their knees and drop to a squatting position with their children in their arms, and then stand up, lifting their babies in the air. One-year-old Bella Popp likes the music and dancing best, though mom Eva says, ‘It seems like I should’ve brought her six months ago,’ noticing that Bella was more eager to play than the other, younger kids in the class who aren’t standing yet. At the end of the class, parents lie down with their babies, some of them nursing. Asad instructs moms to close their eyes to calm their nervous systems, and breathe with their babies. ‘Now matter how busy your schedule is, it’s important to lie down with your babies, nurse them and connect with them,’ she says. ‘Let go of tiredness, frustration and depletion. Breathe in vitality.’ They finish the class by singing ‘The Long Time Sunshine’ a soft, sweet Kundalini yoga song that quiets the babies. Patti and her husband, William, who is also an instructor at JIVA, married three years ago at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine. Patti taught kindergarten at Marquez Charter Elementary School before she and William helped open and head up the yoga instruction at JIVA. Mommy & Me yoga is held Fridays at 11:30 a.m. at JIVA Yoga Studio, 15327 Sunset. Dads are also welcome. The class costs $15. Contact: 454-7000 or go to www.jivayoga.com.

ANDREW S. GIVNER graduated from Boston University School of Medicine on May 16. He is beginning his residency in emergency medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He is the first author of ‘Reimaging in Pediatric Neurotrauma: Factors Associated with Progression of Intracranial Injury,’ published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery in March 2002. Andrew received his B.A. in dramatic art from UC Berkeley and graduated from Windward School and Village School. o o o ETHAN B. TALBERT, son of Henry and Francine Talbert, graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in communication from Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on May 24. He will work as a production assistant for ‘CSI: New York.’ o o o PAUL T. CARTER, son of Marilou Terpenning, graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, on May 31. He received a bachelor of arts degree in economics. He is a graduate of Harvard-Westlake School. o o o ROSE LICHTER MARCK, daughter of Nick Marck and Linda Lichter, earned a bachelor of arts degree with honors from the College of Letters at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She is a graduate of Crossroads High School. Rose’s extracurricular activities included photography and the Alternative Music Social Collective. ‘I just moved to Brooklyn, and I am trying to get involved with the editorial side of the publishing business,’ Rose said in an e-mail. ‘For the time being I am assisting in the organization, promotion, and production of the Jewish Music and Culture Festival (oyhoo.com) to take place in Manhattan in September. I plan to go to graduate school to study critical theory in a few years.’ o o o NOELLE AMOS, daughter of Christine and Ed Amos, has recently returned from a 10-day National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine (NYLF/MED), and participated in a National Youth Leadership Conference earlier in June. The NYLF/MED conference, July 17 to 26, introduced Noelle to a variety of concepts in public health, medical ethics, research and general practice. She got to look at a career in medicine from the inside by touring facilities and speaking with leaders in the medical field. Noelle will be a junior at Marymount in the fall. (Editor’s Note: Palisadian college graduate submissions are welcome, as are photos. Please make sure to include biographical information, including where the student attended high school, parents’ names, any honors or extracurricular activities and future plans. Photos can be prints or digital (300 dpi or better). Information can be e-mailed to features@palipost.com or mailed to 839 Via de la Paz.)

Erika Ann Bates and Roger Pecsok were married on January 30 in a Caribbean seaside ceremony in Cancun, Mexico. A reception followed the ceremony with a mariachi band entertaining. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. James Bates of Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin. The bridegroom is the son of Marilyn S. Pecsok of Pacific Palisades and Thomas P. Pecsok of Castle Rock, Colorado. Roger’s grandmother is Mary A. Sanson of Aurora, Ohio, and Bonita Springs, Florida. Philip Pecsok of Pacific Palisades, the bridegroom’s brother, was best man. Former Palisadians Grant Wilson of San Francisco, Barrett Carrere of Venice and Brett Supernaw of Southport, Connecticut, served as groomsmen, along with Brian Drennan of Los Angeles and Tim Rote of Enumclaw, Washington. Stacey Ward of Denver, Colorado, was the maid of honor. Bridesmaids were Trina Hannon of Golden, Colorado, Christie Meyers of Lafayette, Colorado, Valerie Pipher of Frisco, Colorado, Mary Rice of Ft. Collins, Colorado and Peggy Frydendall of Batavia, Illinois. The bridegroom’s niece and nephew from the Palisades, Taylor Arden Pecsok and Ryan Thomas Pecsok, were flower girl and ring bearer. The bride graduated from Lake Forest High School, Lake Forest, Illinois and attended the University of Colorado and the University of Wisconsin at Stout. She is a sommelier and is employed by Amante Italian Coffee in Boulder, Colorado, as regional director of sales. The bridegroom graduated from PaliHi and the University of Colorado, where he received an M.S. in civil engineering with an emphasis on construction management. He is employed by Continuum Partners, LLC, of Denver as development engineer. The couple reside in Denver.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Gallio of Bend, Oregon, announce the engagement of their daughter, Tahnya Lea Gallio, to Daniel Paul Nodar, son of Mr. and Mrs. Rudy Nodar, longtime residents of Pacific Palisades. Tahnya spent her childhood in Rancho Palos Verdes. She attended Miraleste High School and went on to graduate with a degree in psychology from UC Riverside. She received her teaching credential from Cal State Los Angeles and is currently a second grade teacher at Richmond Street School in El Segundo. She has resided in Hermosa Beach for the past seven years. Daniel attended Corpus Christi Elementary School and Loyola High School. He graduated from USC with a B.S. in business administration and is currently a financial consultant. He returned to Pacific Palisades in 1998. An August 14 wedding is planned.

It is always a pleasure to attend a performance at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum and reacquaint myself with familiar members of the repertory troupe, who have undertaken yet another guise for the season. A decidedly family affair, the company’s related members’artistic director Ellen Geer and her extended family’and the entire cast work together like a drill team, and seem to be enjoying themselves all the while. The multicultural cast includes Theatricum company members Ted Barton, Alan Blumenfeld, Willow Geer, Larry Gelman, Abner Genece, William Dennis Hunt, Jim LeFave, Melora Marshall, Earnestine Phillips, and Jeff Wiesen. ‘The Winter’s Tale’ is one of two of Shakespeare’s plays (joining ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’) being performed on the Theatricum’s outdoor stage under the oak trees in Topanga Canyon. This year the company is participating in the National Endowment of the Arts project to perform Shakespeare in 26,000 towns and cities around the country. Throughout June, the company gave away 25 pairs of tickets per performance. In addition, they will use their NEA grant to perform in area schools. Historically, a winter’s tale was intended to amuse and distract those who lived in harsher climes and endured the inevitable dark, cold months. The story must be gripping and indeed, in Shakespeare’s tale, the story, while taking a few inconceivable turns, is filled with some of his most delightful rustic characters telling a good story. But, first the inconceivable plot. We in the audience must accept the king of Sicily Leontes’ jealousy, which is after all the catalyst that sets the entire story into action. Thoroughly unsubstantiated, his doubts of his wife’s virtue are fueled by his own delusions. Actor Jim LeFave has his work cut out, and he accomplishes his assignment with high scores. Storming the stage with rageful hurt, he imprisons his wife, refuses his newborn daughter, only to grieve inconsolably as he accepts that his foolishness has resulted in the death of his son and wife. Once set in motion, the plot does find itself wending its way to a tidy wrap-up, although Shakespeare must pull off his greatest stage legerdemain to effect the surprising climax. The dramatic descent of Hermione from her pedestal, coup de theatre though it is, is profoundly moving. Sitting in the rustic setting at the Theatricum Botanicum, the audience is inveigled to enter the realm of theatrical magic. We Merry Minstrels not only serenaded guests while we were waiting to enter the arena, the group continued moving us back to the 16th century with their richly rendered a cappella Renaissance music before the action began. One is willing to suspend disbelief because of the credibility of the characters and the beauty of its poetry. Shakespeare is at his best in this last of the comedies when describing exuberant young love between Florizel and Perdita or giving us Autolycus, played by Alan Blumenfeld, a 27-year member of the Theatricum Botanicum. Blumenfeld plays the wily pickpocket with just the right amount of over-the-top fun, dancing off into the audience with some further tomfoolery. Others of note are Hermione, whose speech to her daughter, whom she has never met, is moving in its understatement: ‘You gods, look down/And from your sacred vials pour your graces/Upon my daughter’s head! Tell me, mine own, where hast thou been preserv’d? where liv’d? how found/thy father’s court?…’ ‘The Winter’s Tale’ continues every Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. through September 26. Tickets are $14 and $25; seniors, students, and members of Equity pay $11 and $15; children ages 6-12 are $8; children under 6 are free. Audiences at the Sunday, September 19 performance are invited to participate in a pre-show discussion beginning at 2 p.m. The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Topanga, midway between Malibu and the San Fernando Valley. Contact: 455-3723.