The unmistakable piano and saxophone of the Pink Panther theme song blasts to a 300-person strong audience. Dancers snap their fingers to the beat; a shuffle and turn follow.
It’s (almost) the spring recital at Beachfront Dance in Gary, Indiana. And these performers have spent decades readying for it.
Come Mondays, dancers—all over age 55—gather for the weekly restorative barre class. Janice Dent has been attending for at least a decade.
“Through the years I’ve quite enjoyed it, and it really has been inspirational for me,” the 75-year-old says. “It is a very helpful class to our minds as well as our bodies.”
She considers it a two-in-one—an exercise class and a social hour combined.
In it, Dent has met fellow dancer Sue Rutsen, who is 71. She’d never tried ballet barre before.
Now, she’s kicking her legs out dozens of times with ease.
“It’s just really fun to spend time with everybody and just laugh and move, and it’s just wonderful for all of us as we’re aging,” Rutsen says.
‘Smooth Moves’
Rutsen recalls last year’s spring recital, which is combined with the school’s other classes (and age groups).
“We were just horrible, actually. But we got the biggest rise out of the audience. The audience just loved us because here we had an 86-year-old trying to do some smooth moves,” Rutsen laughs.
“But it’s all just good for everybody. It’s good for young people to see us as human beings still enjoying music and moving. And good for us to be able to watch the three-year-old learning how to dance.”
Teaching those dancers is Alia Hawkins, with help from her mother Lennie Hawkins.
Hawkins says she loves watching the different age groups interact—especially since activities for older generations aren’t as common, particularly in the arts.
It’s partly why projects like this receive support through the Indiana Arts Commission’s Lifelong Arts program. Fellowship members learn skills to work with older adults on art programming, from Hawkins’ barre class to short documentary filmmaking to circus performance.
Art for All
“The art community is what enables you to have programs like this because the art community is … open and accepting to everybody,” Hawkins says. “There was a need and was filled for lack of.”
For her, that need was promoting physical strength and community.
A big part of her barre class, which includes pilates and yoga poses, is to strengthen balance. Once folks reach age 65, that risk of falling greatly increases.
But it goes beyond the physical, Hawkins says: The group is there for its members socially and mentally.
“As you get older, you start to lose friends; you start to lose spouses and it’s like a support group,” she says.
Hawkins has been teaching ballet for 30 years.
But with this class, there’s something special about the lived experiences coming through the door.
“I love ballet,” she says. “[But] ballet is very rigid and anything to kind of switch up what you do gives you a new way to see things.”
Hawkins says teaching older adults gives her a different perspective on life. It’s something she shares with participants who realize they, too, can live creatively.