Older adults are often stereotyped in our society as being frail and unwilling to try new things. The participants that I have met in this class have been the exact opposite. Many of the seniors in our class have been the most enthusiastic participants, and they have demonstrated leadership in the small groups. Because the movement arts class is such a new experience for all of us, the seniors and students seem to have similar feelings of apprehension, curiosity, and eagerness. When my PAL commented that she didn’t feel very graceful, I responded that I felt the same way. Even though my PAL and I have vastly different backgrounds, we were able to bond over our shared experience of trying something new and different. We were both willing to give it our best effort, and we ended up having a lot of fun. In the past, I have sometimes assumed that older adults have a completely different perspective than I do. However, the process of participating in a movement arts class allowed me to see that my PAL and I have more in common than I expected.
Emily Glasson, graduate student in Physical Therapy
Today we explored the concepts of expansion and compression in the body and in space. We also investigated quick and slow movement to begin choreographing small studies of how bodies can amplify time and space. As always, the movement explorations served as an entryway for all of us (older adults, students, dancers and people discovering dance) to unite in laughter, silliness, and creativity. Some Sundays I come to PALETTE tired, groggy, or stressed out. However, once we begin moving together it all immediately melts away. I am constantly amazed at all the beauty and openness in the room, and seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces lights me up inside. I inevitably leave invigorated and inspired.
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.
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.