Ballet is a suitable exercise for the elderly – 09/10/2023 – Equilíbrio

At Studio A, in Los Angeles (USA), Diane Kravif, 75, stands at the bar with perfect upright posture. She wears pink flats and her gray bob is tied back with a band. If you could watch your movements tendu It is plie, one would come to the conclusion that she had always danced. In reality Diane only started ballet four years ago.

“I’m always the oldest,” she says, speaking of the other students in the weekly class. It was difficult at first to learn the technique, but now, she adds, there are times when she feels like she is actually dancing. “It’s surprising, something I never imagined possible.”

In recent years, ballet has been gaining popularity among older adults. There is no data on the number of senior ballet students, but in 2017 there was already enough interest for the Royal Academy of Dance – one of the largest entities in the world in training classical ballet teachers – to create its Silver Swan program, which aims to teach dance to people aged 55 and over. Since then, the academy has certified a thousand of these teachers, who work in 51 countries.

The growing interest comes at a time when we are expanding our understanding of the potential benefits of ballet, especially for the body and mind of older people.

Ballet and health

Numerous studies show that from the age of 40, more or less, balance becomes a vital skill that is linked to longevity and quality of life. In one study, 20% of people over 50 could not balance on one foot for more than 20 seconds. This is linked to a twice the risk of death within ten years.

Ballet classes often focus on balancing on one foot or maintaining stability as you transfer your weight from one position to another. “I don’t know of many disciplines that train the lower limbs like ballet does,” says Madeleine Hackney, professor at Emory University School of Medicine.

Yoga and Pilates also train flexibility and strengthen the core, but ballet offers a greater variety of movements. “We jump into the air, we lift ourselves up on our toes, we get down as low as we can,” says Hackney. “It’s the full range of what the human body is capable of.”

Ballet also has cognitive benefits. A 21-year study by the National Institute on Aging concluded that people who dance a few times a week have a 76% lower risk of developing dementia.

“You need to remember the sequence of steps, you need to remember how to do them and you need to do them,” Hackney points out. “You become cognitively involved, trying to remember all of this and coordinate your movements with the music.”

Overcome the fear

Jane Howard-Martin studied ballet from primary school until adulthood, but after spending 40 years without practicing, she says that “I was scared of going back and being too critical of myself, not being able to do what I could before.”

Today she is 65 years old, a lawyer in Los Angeles and during the pandemic she started taking virtual classes through the Align Ballet Method. After a few months, after regaining her confidence and some of her strength, she returned to in-person training. She’s even done bigger jumps again, although she’s much more careful.

Michael Cornell is the founder of Align, an adult ballet school in California. He says it is difficult to persuade potential students to join the studio because many think that ballet can only be practiced by those who are young and very thin.

“We’ve been trying to take that toxicity out of ballet class and be open, inclusive, diverse and supportive.” For example, Cornell advises students to wear comfortable clothing rather than purchasing ballet clothing.

Being inclusive also means opening up to people with physical differences, says Ronald Alexander, an instructor at Ailey Extension in New York. “If you have injuries, if you have a problem with your knees, your feet, your ankles, we can work on that.”

In Cornell classes, if a student is having difficulty completing a full pirouette he encourages them to try a half pirouette or quarter pirouette. If this is too difficult, he makes the person balance on one leg for three seconds.

“The hardest thing was accepting the fact that I was going to fail over and over again, and over and over again, that I was going to totally fail in the presence of other people,” says actor Joe Seely, 60, from Los Angeles. He started studying ballet ten years ago.

Regardless of your age, ballet is a practice that is difficult to master – and can be liberating. “At my age, most of the things I do, I do well,” says Diane. “I’m a perfectionist. But taking ballet classes as an adult beginner, I’m not very good and I don’t think I ever will be.”

Once you free yourself from the expectation of perfection, what was once intimidating about ballet can begin to give you satisfaction. “There’s a meditative quality to ballet, something I don’t think I appreciated when I was a kid,” says Howard-Martin. “I feel a great peace when I’m in the studio dancing, and that makes me deeply happy.”

Translation by Clara Allain