At Studio A in Los Angeles, Diane Kravif, 75, stands at the bar with a very upright posture. Observing her tendu and plié, one might assume that she has danced her entire life. But she has only been doing it for four years.
“I’m always the oldest,” Kravif said of the students in the weekly drop-in class. Learning the technique was difficult at first, she added.
Ballet has gained traction among older adults. In 2017 there was enough interest that the Royal Academy of Dance in London, one of the world’s leading authorities on classical ballet teacher training, created its Silver Swans program to instruct people over 55. It has since certified more than a thousand of these ballet teachers, operating in 51 countries. American schools offer similar programs.
The increase in interest comes at a time when we better understand the potential benefits of ballet. Numerous studies show that, after the age of 40, balance is a vital skill associated with longevity and quality of life. In one study, 20 percent of people over 50 could not balance on one leg for 10 seconds. This correlated with a two-fold increased risk of death within a decade.
Ballet classes focus on single-leg balance, or maintaining balance while transferring weight from one position to another.
“I don’t know of many disciplines that can train the lower extremities like ballet does,” said Madeleine Hackney, an associate professor at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. While yoga and Pilates offer flexibility and core strengthening training, ballet offers a wider variety of movements. Ballet also offers cognitive benefits: In a 21-year study funded by the US National Institute on Aging, people who danced a few times a week had a 76 percent lower risk of dementia.
“You have to remember the sequence of steps, you have to remember how to do them,” Hackney said. “Cognitively you’re involved, trying to remember all that, trying to coordinate it with the music.”
Many perceive ballet as something exclusive to the young and hyperthin, said Michael Cornell, founder of the Align Ballet Method.
“We have been trying to eliminate that toxicity from ballet class, to be open, inclusive, supportive and diverse,” she said.
If a student is having trouble doing a full pirouette, he encourages them to try a half or quarter turn. If that’s too difficult, he’ll have you balance on one leg for three seconds.
Regardless of age, ballet is a difficult activity to master—and that can be liberating.
“I’m a perfectionist,” Kravif said. “But I’m not particularly good at beginner adult ballet and I don’t think I ever will be.”
Once you’ve freed yourself from the expectation of mastering it, what seemed daunting about ballet can feel satisfying.
“It has a meditative quality, which I don’t think I appreciated as a child,” said Jane Howard-Martin, 65, who studied ballet from elementary school to adulthood but then took a 40-year hiatus. “There’s just a peace I feel when I’m in the studio, dancing — it makes me deeply happy.”
By: DORIE CHEVLEN
The New York Times
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6890410, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-09-12 20:30:09
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