Heritage Classic 2014 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Dancing as a Senior

Not to belabor the point, but man or woman, improving your skills in ballroom dancing is a full time endeavor.  You simply cannot just learn steps, choreography and expect to be competitive in the ballroom dance world.  This especially rings true for seniors like me.  Sixty-seven going on sixty-eight, everything that can go wrong does go wrong.  Feet ankles, knee, groin, back, neck, arm, shoulder……it seems like my body is a rotating mass of bruised and battered mush.  Ibuprofen is taken like candy to keep me going and the only hope to excel, when so much can go wrong, is to really get serious about cross training.  I can now more easily identify how competitive my competitor will be just by looking at them, the way they walk, their posture, their body habitus, and their mannerisms.  Parenthetically, I am right most but not all of the time. 

In any case, there is no such thing as too much cross training!  For me it includes daily stretching, some weight training and 120 sit-ups most days when at home - on my sit-up machine.  I have done Pilates and stretch classes to increase flexibility and strengthen core although I must admit I have been delinquent of late in using these two modalities. I also sleep at night without a pillow trying to keep my neck straight along the alignment of my back.  I pretend to stretch while in bed from head to toe and work some ankle stretches when I can remember to do so in the morning. 

In addition to these, I have increasing invested practice time in doing simple waltz and foxtrot steps in a circular pattern around the dance floor repeating the same steps over and over.  I do this for 15-30 minutes or more. The purpose of this is to build fluidity and softness in movement.  When I observed myself on video in the past, my feet were clunky and my steps were small.  These exercises are meant to improve upon those aspects as well as to build strength in your legs and ankles.  The truth is, they are fun to do as you listen to your iPod music while deliberately dancing around the perimeter of the dance floor losing yourself to the moment as you work your way into the zone.  But don’t be surprised if it draws some attention and comments from onlookers especially if you look too happy dancing by yourself looking dreamily toward the sky.