Article by:
Sarah Stacey
As the ballet music from Coppélia floats across the ballroom at The Bull Hotel in Bridport, Dorset, dancers in black leotards, leggings and satin ballet slippers start twirling elegantly.
With heads erect and toes pointed, they look happy and expectant, like a young corps de ballet waiting to show off their battements tendus and glissades.
But these women are mostly in their 60s and 70s, the oldest 84. Carla Steenkamp Sheills, who started My Ballet classes two years ago, now teaches more than 100 women in Dorset and Somerset (no men yet, but that may come).
They are part of a nationwide surge in popularity of what the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) has christened ‘silver swan’ classes and has prompted the organisation to begin training teachers specifically to deliver lessons to older people. In 2012, there was a 70 per cent increase in new dancers aged 50-plus and it is thought that the number has risen significantly since.
RAD puts this new-found popularity down to shows such as BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing. Carla also believes that many of her students see her ballet classes as a chance to fulfil a childhood dream.
‘Maybe the aspiration of being a ballet dancer was unreachable before but now it is becoming accessible. My students learn that they don’t have to be perfect to regain the sense of themselves as lovely, graceful women.’
Every woman I talked to reiterated those feelings.
‘I hate exercise but this is sublime,’ Michelle Hughes told me as we practised our pliés.
(Yes, I did join in and absolutely loved it, despite having erratic brain/feet coordination so dance classes are usually ritual humiliation.)
Carla, 54, trained at the Johannesburg School for Art, Ballet, Drama and Music in South Africa, but quit her ballet career at 18 because ‘it was too punishing’.
Instead, she worked as a stylist in film and interiors. Moving to England with her family in 2000, she studied dance and movement therapy, which has greatly influenced her work now, alongside her lifelong practice of yoga.
In 2008, Carla was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent radical surgery. She felt ‘isolated and fearful, trapped in a hospital bed’.
But it was that trauma that led to Carla adapting her teaching for her My Ballet classes.
‘I needed to find a way of being freed and opening my wounded body and heart so that I could connect with the world again. I realised I could do that by slowly, quietly moving my body in little dance sequences.’
Over the next five years she developed the classes and, in 2013, took ‘the mad step’ of opening her first weekly class for older women in her home village of Winsham, Somerset.
Her students, all retired and with diverse backgrounds, from farming to fashion, social work to motherhood, poured in and soon she opened a second venue in Bridport.
One common factor is that most of her students have ailments of one kind or another, which greatly benefit from the classes.
RAD’s Dance for Lifelong Wellbeing report says: ‘Recent research now positions dance ahead of other physical activity [for] its health-promoting benefits on every level: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual…at any stage of life.’
And long-term research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York shows to dance to be the most effective physical activity to ward off deterioration of the brain and dementia.
At the end of Carla’s class, the dancers described how they felt: ‘elated’, ‘uplifted’, ‘happy’, ‘joyful’ and ‘as I want to feel’. They definitely give it ten.
Rita Miller, 71
My two great-loves are ballet and yoga. I wouldn’t miss either for the world and organise my life around them. I did ballet when I was about seven, then Latin American dancing in the 1960s. When I heard about ballet classes for the over-50s I thought I’d give it a go.
Ballet is as much art as exercise. I have tried all sorts of activities – running, gym sessions, the cross-trainer – but they were a drudge. These classes are food for the body and soul. You can walk in feeling a bit dreary, but as soon as you hear Carla’s fabulous music you get immersed in this wonderful ambience and have to move.
When we first began going to Carla’s classes we would stand there feeling self-conscious but now no one gives a damn. You are in your own bubble but there is a lovely camaraderie – you never feel judged or looked at.
No one ever says, ‘I can’t do that.’ Everyone has a go, which is unusual and brilliant at our age. We surprise ourselves because we would never have thought we could put our bodies in these positions. I love the arm work: it is so elegant and beautiful.
When I go home, I walk like Margot Fonteyn. I automatically pull in my tummy in the queue at the supermarket. The movements make you stretch, so every part of your body elongates. I am very short – 5ft 2in – but I keep thinking I may grow a little taller.
Dawn Drake, 77
I am not a natural dancer. I pick up things very slowly and my coordination is poor, so I have to really think about the steps or I start off on the wrong foot, which throws me off completely. But ballet has improved my confidence in the way my body works, and learning something new is tremendously exciting.
Ballet makes me feel feminine and attractive, which is wonderful at 77. You start to slouch as you get older, but I hold myself better now.
I love the music and the grace of the movements. I loathe gyms and aqua aerobics with all that banging music.
Everyone is friendly here and I have always felt at home. You go to some exercise classes and people stare at you, but in Carla’s classes, we smile at one another.
I took up ballet after the death of my eldest daughter 18 months ago. My husband had died shortly before and I was anxious about everything and experiencing dizzy spells. My doctor said I should do something to help my balance. I could see his lip twitching when I said I had started ballet. Now he says he is all for it. Ballet has helped me with my bereavement – I have found enjoyment in life again.
I feel uplifted by the class. I can relax and not think about worries. I love the powerful walk we do at the end: it makes you feel pride in yourself.
Beverley Young, 70
I wanted to go to ballet classes when I was young but never had the chance. So I bought ballet annuals and danced around my bedroom. Later, I watched every television programme about ballet but never thought I would do it. Now my children say, ‘Where’s your tutu, Mother?’
Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Medication has stopped the tremor but I want to keep as fit as I possibly can. The specialist nurse says activity that strengthens your core muscles, as ballet does, is a good thing.
My balance was wobbly but it is improving. I have been doing the classes for nine months now and the strength in my legs is better, particularly my left leg, which is most affected. I can get up and down from squatting and kneeling more easily. Standing on one leg or on your toes is quite hard work, but I trust my body more now.
Ballet really energises you and is great for your state of mind. You get into the rhythm of the music and the movements. It is about being at one with yourself mentally and physically, which is a change for me. I can let go of stuff I am anxious about. I go away almost floating.
I enjoy the group very much. The ones who did ballet as children look more competent, but no one is perfect and it really doesn’t matter. I would like a tutu now, by the way.
Sandy Wells, 71
I didn’t particularly want to do ballet but as the booking secretary for the Winsham village hall [where My Ballet started] I tried a class so I could tell people about it. As a former occupational therapist, I could immediately see Carla was not just offering another exercise class but a holistic process, connecting body and mind.
People often lack confidence, as I did. They think they may look silly but Carla always says you can’t do anything wrong – you are not trying to be perfect, you are trying to dance to the best of your ability on that particular day. She encourages us to adapt to any injuries or aches and pains.
I’m definitely fitter and more flexible now and ballet helps to strengthen your bones. One specialist said that standing on one leg for at least a minute – as we do continually in classes – really wards off osteoporosis.
The ballet takes over your life – you can do it while you brush your teeth or stand at the bus stop. My son says that since doing ballet I never bend, I always grand plié! Also, I no longer suffer from night-time leg cramps.
Dancing has improved my self-image. My daughter remarked that I’d recently found the confidence to change my hairstyle and the way I dress. It has given me a new lease on life and a sense of achievement and fulfilment. I sometimes feel that old youthful eagerness when I’m getting ready for a class.
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