You Should Be Dancing!

Why are more and more older people discovering – or rediscovering –  dance? This fun source of creative expression has some surprising benefits.

As the Bee Gees sang in Saturday Night Fever, “you should be dancing.” More and more older people are discovering their inner John Travolta and taking that energizing message out onto the floor.  Senior centers and other centers around the country offer free or low cost dance classes – plus, of course, Senior Planet’s  online dance party series on Fridays.  

There’s a growing body of proof that dancing improves cardiovascular function, increases core strength, improves memory and flexibility and lifts mood – but what explains the growing popularity of dance as a creative outlet for older people?

Dancing into Connections

“Dance is about connecting with others,” says Naomi Goldberg Haas, 63, artistic director of Dances for a Variable Population, a NYC-based non-profit multi- generational dance company that hosts classes and performances.

“It allows for illuminating a host of emotions, being understood at a deep level.  We dance because we feel and want to express.”

“Dance serves as an outlet for sharing a host of emotions, most clearly JOY.”

Older Choreographers Dance Creations

Older choreographers like George Faison, Ellen Graff, Stuart Hodes and Marni Thomas Hood were invited to create works with DVP dancers.  Their performances were captured in Josefina Rotman Lyons’ 2020 documentary, Revival, a meditation on aging, dance, and community.  Learn about it here.

Wanna Dance?

Senior Planet asked Haas for her advice and encouragement for an older person thinking about taking a dance class:

• Come to a dance class and consider CONNECTING with others though the act of dancing!
• For pure enjoyment of moving – you will be moving more than before you started!
• Enjoy a greater confidence and balance, of body, mind and spirit:  areas that are enhanced by practicing dance!

Tapping to Joy

After seeing two different tap companies perform at New York City’s Joyce Theater, SuZen, a 77 year old fine art photographer and multimedia artist, told a friend that she wanted to learn how to tap dance because it looked like fun.  On the back of the playbill, she spotted an ad for the American Tap Dance Foundation, located in her Greenwich Village neighborhood. She enrolled in an absolute beginner class and now takes weekly lessons.

“I love it!”  she says.  “In the past, I studied Tango which is very serious and you need a partner. Tap is fun and lighthearted and you don’t need a partner. I can be spontaneous and free when I dance. However taking classes and learning the steps is rigorous and at times very difficult.”

In addition to her weekly class, SuZen practices a few times a week, watching tutorials on the internet.

“Tap dancing may look simple, but it’s quite complex”,  she adds.   “Learning the various steps and then the sequences has been challenging.  As a senior, I find tap dancing to be extremely good for various things, such as memory, remembering the step, and then building on the step into a sequence and being able to repeat it. The other thing that is very good is being able to keep my balance especially when standing on one foot as I am stroking multiple times with the other foot.

“Growing up with learning disabilities all of my insecurities arise. However, I know this is part of the learning curve and with persistence I am getting better. I love and totally enjoy tap dancing and plan to continue learning.”

Dancing as Physical therapy

Carolyn Davis, 63, began dancing as a child as a form of expression, as well as to relieve spasticity, since she’s had spastic cerebral palsy since birth. She was five or six when she  began dancing as a form of self-directed physical exercise.

“Dancing is invigorating and relaxing after hours at the computer,” says Davis, a writer/editor, who lives in Providence, RI and usually dances from a wheelchair. “I like the self-expression and the feel of the music. I perform a sort of freestyle every few days, and use music that expresses my mood.”

Davis dances at public events and  hosted a “virtual” dance party, from her home when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were inaugurated President and Vice President.

“Dancing is beneficial for physical and mental health, and has been said to forestall dementia,” she says. “I recommend it!”

Want to get your groove on?  Join Senior Planet’s next Friday afternoon dance party on December 29, 2023!  Find details, and sign in info here. 

Kate Walter is the author of two memoirs: Behind the Mask: Living Alone in the Epicenter; and Looking for a Kiss: A Chronicle of Downtown Heartbreak and Healing. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, New York Daily News, AM-NY, Next Avenue, The Advocate, The Village Sun and other outlets. She taught writing at CUNY and NYU for three decades and now works as a writing coach.
Photo:  SuZen practicing tap dancing, photo by Karen Santry