It’s Never Too Late to Dance and Shine: The Ballet Project for Older Women

It’s Tuesday morning, right around taco time. People move quickly along Irarrázabal Avenue, in the municipality of Ñuñoa, and horns are the protagonists of the city’s sound. However, in the middle of the chaos, an oasis: the Ebano rehearsal room, where from the outside you can hear La vie en rose by Edith Piaf.

Just like in the Pied Piper , I followed the music to its origin and then the whole scene turned out to be even more astonishing: a group of women, on average 60 years old, rehearsing a ballet. All with a constant smile, red lipstick and a chiffon skirt that makes them float.

The teacher is Argyro Mouchliadou, a dancer of Greek origin who launched this project in August this year. “I lived in England for two years with my family and at that time I was graduating. “Silver Swan Method” , account. This is a classical dance project for adults over 55 created by the Royal Academy of Dance of the United Kingdom . These are – as stated on the website where the certification is issued – “introductory ballet classes that seek a fun, low-impact way to keep older adults active.” Beautiful classical music compositions are incorporated with segments of actionable ballet movements to inspire and challenge your inner dancer.

Argyro – his name is difficult to pronounce for his students, that’s why they call him Argy – all his life he had a special approach towards the elderly; As a child, she loved talking with her grandparents, visiting them at home, listening to their stories and looking through their books. So when he heard about this project, while living in England, he signed up for a course. “They asked me what I was doing there if I was only in my thirties. But I wanted to know more. “I took classes with older people, spent several weeks with them and the teacher talking, and then I realized that this is what I wanted to do with my life. »

But getting the certification was not so easy, especially because that year he came to live in Chile and no one teaches it here. “This year, an online spot opened up at an academy in Chicago, and then I was able to take the course and get certified. In July I finished and in August we launched Senior’s Ballet (@seniorsballet2023 on Instagram). “I have two groups and we rehearse here and in a headquarters in Providencia. In Chile I think there are two certified teachers, in Brazil three more. That’s all there is in Latin America,” he says. And he adds: “The difference with this certification – says Argy – is that it teaches you exactly how to treat an elderly person. »

But something else is happening in Argy’s classes. And, about 15 minutes before finishing, psychologist Carol Muñoz Giusti takes control, places a board in the middle of the room and the dancers rest to chat.

That day, the task was to make an acrostic with the word “Senior”. “You must first tell me words that start with the letter ‘s’ and which are associated with this space, with these classes,” he asks them.

— “I would say ‘smile’, because when I come, I’m so happy! I smile all the time.”

— “I would say ‘a dream come true’, because I always wanted to study ballet, but for different reasons I couldn’t do it.”

— “And I would say ‘without requirements’ because when we talk about people over 50, they are obviously going through a stage where the body is changing, maybe they are in menopause, so we cannot demand same way as a girl who leaves. Here the idea is to feel the music, to feel good, to feel accompanied, to make friends.

— “I would also say empathy, elegance, emotion… we are going to be missing a slate!

“In every class, I am surprised by what happens in this collective conversation. It’s a wonderful space for Argy and I to learn too, because older people are wise, they have stories of resilience,” says Carol.

The idea of ​​adding this area of ​​psychology is not part of the English certification, it was an addition that occurred to them one day while returning from Lady Ballet classes, where Carol is a student at Argy. “I was telling you about the impact starting ballet as an adult woman had on me. At first, I didn’t dare take the plunge, in fact the first day I wanted to go home. I was very ashamed, I didn’t feel comfortable with my body and I had a lot of prejudices about what I was capable of,” she says.

For this reason, and based on his personal experience, he thought it would be a good idea to add this conversation to the dance. “With older women, we talk about empowerment, reconciliation with certain aspects of the past. Because older people, especially women, are often invisible in society. In England, where this certification was born, studies have been carried out which show that an activity like this improves the mental health of older people, the feeling of belonging and social inclusion,” he adds.

In this therapeutic space, Carol was able to see that it is difficult for women to allow themselves this space. “Women tend to categorize themselves into roles, and this space is unique for them because they find themselves again as women and not just as mothers, grandmothers or caregivers. They may discover that their potential does not end with old age or that there are things they have never discovered, that no one has ever taught them to see. And to this we add that at this stage of life, mental health problems begin to appear: depression, loneliness, lack of activity. “But here, there’s motivation, because they could be at home watching the morning show, but no, they’re motivating themselves, they’re getting dressed. Some live far away, they put on makeup and go out,” adds Argy.

After her class, another young woman arrives. We cannot discuss in depth, but each of them still wishes to leave a short message, a summary of their experience. Whoever couldn’t even be there that day, he texts him.

“In January I had back surgery and after that I felt old, invalid. There I started looking for something and I came to ballet and that made me excellent. I feel like it made me rejuvenate. “I’m bad at cloudy days, that’s why in the exercise I said ‘sun’, because on cloudy days I want to stay in bed, but the only day I wake up happy, it ‘is when I come here”, Nelly, 66 years old.

“I said “without demands and without competition”, because that allows you to enjoy it more. Whether the teacher corrects us or not, it doesn’t matter. But it makes me very happy,” Cécilia, 62 years old.

“I recovered from colon cancer. I had a really bad time during the pandemic because I didn’t even go out into the hallway of the apartment for eight months because I was a high-risk person. It made me gain 20 kilos. I first looked for it to do physical activity, but I discovered something more important: personal development, motivation, energy. That’s why coming here makes me happy. It helped me recover physically, but much more emotionally, because you start to become invisible at that age. In the family, we are the grandmother, the one who helps, the one who takes care; In the street too, you no longer attract so much attention, they see you as the old lady, they give you space, but no one sees us as a person with ideas, thoughts, desires, abilities. But here, I felt like I had my place, I felt valued, recognized. "Here I appeared again," Ximena, 60 years old.

“I made a dream come true. I have a younger sister who danced and I always watched her and wanted to do it, but for different reasons I couldn’t. Now retired, my father became seriously ill and my mother has Alzheimer’s disease. I’m taking care of them and I started to stress. “Several people suggested that I do something outside the house and that’s how I arrived at what makes me happy, because in addition to dancing, I met beautiful companions “, Patricia, 65 years old.

“I am coming out of a serious illness and it has done me very well, it fills me with happiness, I forget what I have. My brain didn’t work very well in certain parts, so when the teacher says right, sometimes I go left, but despite that, I feel protected, I feel affection. It’s a dream come true.” Carmen Gloria, 66 years old.

“I did ballet when I was 15. Now that I’ve retired, I started looking to get back into it, but I couldn’t find it. That’s how I got here. Ultimately, at this point in my life, it’s the best I’ve found. And even more so with a gift because it is the dance and also the psychologist; “This supplement is the best there is because in addition to working on the physical, the teacher has the emotional capacity and a voluntary gift on her part to support each of us who finds ourselves in emotional difficulty,” Nancy, 65 years old.

As we say goodbye it plays Congratulations, the famous song by Al Bano & Romina Power. “I choose the music carefully every time, it’s not that I put on a playlist, I go from song to song, seeing what it says, what emotion there is that day. There are places where teachers come, put on a playlist, teach the lesson and leave. For us it’s not like that, it’s something much deeper. We think it really helps the older women who go there,” Argy says. “That’s why this song is perfect, because we all leave happy,” says one of the students.

“We deeply want them to be happy,” concludes the psychologist.