I am not going to lie, I was an ageist before this class. Even walking into the first class, I was skeptical about how it was going to go. I was pleasantly surprised. Working with the senior volunteers these past few weeks has definitely opened up my eyes to a lot of things. It has been so interesting to see the differences between the student and the senior volunteers. During the first class, it was apparent that the professional students were extremely self conscious but most of the senior volunteers were not shy or afraid to experiment with the different dance motions. It has been so fun watching everyone grow more and more comfortable week by week. Sharon, my PAL, has so much spunk. Most of the senior volunteers have so much more movement in them than I thought possible. A lot of people underestimate the abilities of seniors, especially when they see a walker. But, this past weekend, a PAL with a walker performed a beautiful duet with one of the pharmacy students. It was amazing to see how someone who I thought was going to have so little movement create something so beautiful.
Attending this class has definitely eliminated any fear that I may have had about aging. The fact that all of the older PALs have made it clear that you can age beautifully and you learn so much along the way is inspiring. I never saw myself being friends with any of the PALs really but I have a dinner date planned with Alice and Sharon this Friday. Overall, I am so grateful that I was given and took this opportunity to work with all the PALs in the PALETTE program.
Shivangi Bhatt, graduate student in Pharmacy
Day two of class was much more comfortable than the first class. I honestly had no idea what to expect when signing up for this dance class, but the movements required of us during the first class were nothing that I had ever tried before, and by the end, I was still feeling a bit uncomfortable. While we repeated many of the same motion activities today, I was much more comfortable and was able to find a lot more enjoyment in the movement. During the choreography section I even really began to feel like we were expressing something through our movement, and we were creating art. I think the class generally was more comfortable with each other, and more comfortable moving together, which may have helped the creative juices flow.
First off, I love every second of our Sunday afternoon sessions together! Seeing the room light up with positivity is an invigorating instance to be a part of. Being a dance and choreography major we can get lost in the rigor of our program and tend to only associate with other dance majors, our faculty members and on occasion other arts-based disciplines. This program is a nice way to ground myself in the reasons why I even began dancing when I was 8, and that being the fact that it’s just fun. I love seeing how willing everyone in the program is to participate and jumps right into a new art form without any hesitation! Whether the other participants know it or not, it is a wonderful learning experience, as a dancer, to see how dance-centered tasks get translated to non-dancer bodies of all ages. Working with different age groups and scientific disciplines creates a lovely dynamic in the space that establishes community and collaboration because everyone has something different to bring to the movement studies.
Today was the second session of PALETTE in Motion. I couldn’t wait to enter the same judge-free-zone I had left two weeks earlier. The friendly and supportive atmosphere achieved during the first session had relieved all of my initial hesitations about dancing in front of strangers; I had quickly learned that no matter if you were a student or senior volunteer, we were all entering unknown territory and accepting the challenge at hand. I spent all morning anxiously awaiting the mid-afternoon movement arts class that I knew would make me feel joyous both mentally and physically. As I entered the dance studio today, I was excited to see new and returning faces.
Today was the first PALETTE in Motion class and it was an experience that was completely different from what I expected. Because I am a pharmacy student, I do not participate in classes like this at all so it was a great change from the normal class setting. But beyond learning in a different style than lecturing, the PALETTE in Motion class showed me how I can learn about the older population through movement. All of the PALs that attended the class came in with a positive attitude and an openness to learn. My PAL, Alice, was vibrant and talkative from the moment we all sat down next to each other. All of the other seniors were also very excited to do different warm up exercises and flex their creative muscles. More than anything, they seemed to enjoy doing something that most of them were not used to. They were able to step outside their comfort zone.