Dancing In The Atrium

Telling someone she’s off her rocker is not usually a compliment. But the eight Westminster Oaks women who danced through the atrium in mid-September proudly call themselves Off Our Rockers for a good reason: Their message is that older people who stay active rather than sitting around are more likely to enjoy life.

They didn’t speak that message, though; they danced it. Pretty persuasively, too, judging by the number of professors, students and staff members who got out of their folding chairs to join them – including Ken Brummel-Smith, chair of the geriatrics department, and Chris Leadem, associate dean for student affairs and admissions.

Sure, dancing is fun, but why all the fuss? Because dancing has a variety of benefits for the geriatric participant. Here are two of them:
 

• You’re stimulating your brain as you work at remembering the dance patterns, and that work improves your memory.
• You’re improving your balance with all those quarter, half and full turns.

“We have a lot of brainy, well-balanced people here,” said Lisa Jackson, the wellness coordinator at Westminster Oaks and the MC in the atrium. Here was another of her best lines, delivered after the women danced to Patsy Cline’s lost-love song “Walkin’ After Midnight”: “These days, after midnight, we’re not walking to see our sweethearts – we’re walking to the bathroom.”

When you’re line dancing, you don’t need a partner. That’s an advantage for an older dancer whose favorite partner might no longer be available.

The event was the latest sponsored by the College of Medicine’s D.W. Reynolds Grant, designed to let the faculty, staff and students see successful images of aging. Suzanne Baker, Reynolds Grant coordinator in the department of geriatrics, was pleased with the turnout and with the performance.

The Westminster Oaks dancers ranged in age from mid-50s to mid-80s. Lisa Jackson said half of them are cancer survivors. But look at those smiles in the photo. These people are not just “surviving.” They’re living it up.

How about you?

Ron Hartung