“It took me nine months to lose over a 100lbs using my Goddess Fitness Program, and now at 38 I am in the best shape of my life. I feel fabulous!”
by Sean Borg
FOR A BRIEF shining moment in the 1980s, Emma Ridley was among the most talked about celebrities in the British tabloids. Think Paris Hilton with too much hairspray and you’ve got it. Everywhere she went there was usually a ravenous pack of paparazzi chasing behind.
Fame found Emma early. At just six months she was chosen as England’s Gerber Baby and a lucrative spell in modeling and TV commercial work folllowed. At four, she was cast as the daughter of old school Hollywood’s Anthony Franciosa and Carroll Baker in ‘The World is Full of Married Men’, based on Jackie Collins’ steamy novel. At six, she was one of just 22 lucky ballerinas who beat out 5,000 other hopefuls to join the prestigious Royal Ballet School in London. By eleven she had performed with the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet theater and began to appear in a string of stage productions including Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers.
But the pressures of fame at a young age took their toll, and by her early teens Emma had become notorious for her late-night antics, including driving underage, raunchy dancing at top nightclubs in just her undies and getting blotto at glittering London showbiz parties with her mother. Quickly dubbed the “Wild Child”, by an insatiable British media, Emma’s very public flameout foreshadowed the antics of Linday Lohan or Paris Hilton by two decades.
But what did Emma Ridley do to acquire such a title? “I just danced,” she said, “I innocently climbed up on a stage at a well known night club in London and danced my fricking ass off in front of everyone, and suddenly I was blinded by paparazzi flashbulbs.”
There followed two ill-fated marriages while she was still in her teens – one to a man twice her age, – a move to Hollywood, a third marriage and motherhood. But as fate would have it, her love of dancing continued to guide her amazing journey and has taken her to where she is today.
Now, a little over 20 years and three kids later, the sexy blonde is a dance fitness guru and entrepreneur living in Los Angeles growing her very own chain of schools, Goddess Fitness Dance in Southern California.
After three failed marriages Emma says: “I’ve given up on the concept of marriage now. It’s going to take a mighty man for me to marry again. I guess they can’t keep up!”
“Despite this, I think I’m at a great stage in my life today…I am in the best shape I’ve ever been in, both emotionally and physically. It put it all down to the fact that I teach dance classes at my fitness studio and practise yoga almost every day.”
So how did she get from there to here? After becoming a mom, Ridley found the rigorous demands of motherhood and neglecting a regular fitness routine had taken its toll on her both physically and emotionally, her weight ballooned and she was soon suffering from various illnesses due to being unfit and unhealthy.
But in true Emma style, she set out to fix herself her own way, exploring homeopathy, eastern medicine philosophy, reading the works of leading metaphysical healer Louise Hay and dabbling in Christianity and Scientology before returning to her roots by teaching classical ballet and yoga to all ages, desperate as she was to find a fitness choice that was neither too masculine, mundane or boring.
And boy did it work! After shedding over 100lbs in just nine months she distilled her hard-won expertise in health, weight loss and dietary choices into the ‘Goddess Makeover’ program, which, says says, “offers a simple plan to improve health and wellbeing”.
“It’s too easy to get bored of the same gym sessions,” says Ridley, “But with the Goddess makeover program we mix things up with Yogalicious, Burlesque, Pole dancing, Belly dancing and Circus fitness. As long as you commit to three or more classes a week and keep moving, you’ll feel and look amazing and never get stuck in an exercise rut.”
In May 2005 Emma opened her first studio in Santa Clarita and by January 2006 it had grown so much she moved to a bigger location, before moving again in January 2009 to cope with the demand.
“I call it ‘Emma-cise’, not exercise; it’s free movement of meditation in motion. It’s a very Zen-like experience and a great emotional release while getting the most incredible workout!”
Today the Goddess Fitness Dance Studio runs over 90 classes a week, and last July Emma opened her second location in Woodland Hills, with a third planned later this year on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, and a fourth in Santa Barbara by summer 2012. She told me: “I created Goddess Fitness Dance to reconnect with my dancing. It was something I had to do to feel fearlessly feminine – empowered and beautiful and ultimately get into shape.”
She states quite confidently, “It’s not what we look like, its how we feel. I have yet to meet a women who isn’t a Goddess.”
As an all round entertainer, Ridley currently putting the finishing touches working to her music album self-titled “Emma-lution”, featuring songs she has written, and a rock-pop music video of the hit song “Amazing Grace” which when released last summer received over 100,000 hits in its first week on YouTube.
Drawing from her own experiences, she has created her own fitness DVD available on her website www.goddessfitnessdance.com/ with all her own dance moves, and a book with the ‘Goddess Make Over’ in the pipeline.
“Goddess Fitness is the most fun you’ll ever have in fitness, come in and see for yourself!” She beams.
Goddess Fitness Dance Studios are located at: 19855 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. (818) 348 – 6000; and 26635 Valley Center Drive, Santa Clarita (661) 251 – 2831.
[adrotate group=”8″]
