Google “ballet for seniors” — and yet get 26 million results in 0.43 seconds. Who knew?
But as reported here in the New York Times, “ballet is a great workout for an aging body,” and classes for “silver swans” are booming.
“Silver swans” isn’t just a copywriter’s turn of phrase, either. It’s the official name of a program introduced in 2017 by the Royal Academy of Dance, “among the largest teacher-training authorities in the world for classical ballet.” Under this program, the academy has certified over 1,000 teachers, operating out of 51 countries.
“American schools have been offering similar programs, including the Golden Swans at Oklahoma City Ballet, Senior Steps at Ballet West in Salt Lake City, and Boomer Ballet at the St. Paul Ballet in Minnesota.”
The benefits are many, starting with the fact that “balance is a vital skill associated with longevity and quality of life.” (Remember the 10-second “stand on one leg” test that we wrote about?) The article quotes Dr. Madeleine Hackney, as associate professor at Emory University’s School of Medicine: “I don’t know many disciplines that can train the lower limb the way ballet does.”
Ballet also offers a wider variety of movement than other flexibility and core strength methods like yoga or Pilates. “We jump in the air, we rise all the way up on our toes, we lower all the way down as far as we can. It’s a whole range of what the human body can do.
There are also cognitive benefits: “In one 21-year study funded by the National Institute on Aging, people who danced a few times a week had a 76 percent lower risk of dementia.” Dr. Hackney again: “You have to remember the sequence of steps, you have to remember how to do them. Cognitively, you are certainly involved, trying to remember all that, trying to coordinate it to the music.”
The biggest barrier might be intimidation, the worry that it will be too tough, impossible to master. The schools seem well aware of this obstacle, and are working to make their programs comfortable and accessible. The article quotes Michael Cornell, founder of Align, an adult ballet school is California: “We’ve been trying to remove that toxicity from the ballet class, to be open, inclusive, supportive, diverse.” He tells students to wear comfortable clothes instead of buying ballet gear, for instance. Schools take into account physical limitations, and tailor expectations to physical capability: “In Mr. Cornell’s classes, if a student is having trouble completing a full pirouette, he encourages them to try a half- or quarter-turn. If that’s too difficult, he will have them balance on one leg for three seconds.”