A Manhattan-based organization has the city’s senior citizens ready to tango this Valentine’s Day.
Movement Speaks, the core program of Dances For A Variable Population (DVP), offers seniors in low-income communities free sequential dance instruction, followed by a public performance of their original work. It also allows older people to discover their strength – both physical and emotional – and to connect with other class participants.
“The focus is about using dance as a vehicle to empower different communities throughout New York City and allow them to be visible in the larger community of New York,” said Naomi Goldberg Haas, founding artistic director of DVP.
Ten teaching artists help run 19 programs in senior centers, recreation centers and libraries in four boroughs. Through the implementation of a standard curriculum and use of shared playlists, their 75-minute-long classes are structured to give the fullest experience of physical exercise and creative exploration. Each week introduces a new area of focus: body, spatial awareness, dynamics, relationship and dance making.
According to Goldberg Haas, one of the program’s crucial components is for the participants to live and learn in the moment.
“We take everyone from where you are right now; we don’t ask you to think back to older days. We say, ‘Look at where you are right now and see what you can do.’ It’s positive in that respect,” she added. “Just smile… there’s so much to enjoy!”
The teachers use a diverse selection of music to get their students moving to the rhythm. For instance, while they play a lot of music from the 1940s and 1950s, teachers also make sure to also include contemporary pop and hip hop. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, four classes are taking place (in West Harlem, Carroll Gardens, the Bronx, and the Upper East Side) on February 14 – which will influence the day’s activities.
“Holidays are important to older people and to everyone,” Goldberg Haas said. “The teachers are going to have some part of their curriculum that will have some dances that are made up with connecting with each other in a more pointed way.”
Senior dancer Pamela Knowles, who has been with DVP’s Movement Speaks for the past three years, is one of the teaching artists who will be leading a Valentine’s Day dance session at the Eileen Dugan Senior Center in Carroll Gardens. It’ll be the fourth week of the season at the location, and she plans to ask participants if they have a favorite Valentine’s Day poem that they’d like to share.
“We can explore some poems from a movement point of view and create a simple movement sentence by deriving action words from their sharing a poem,” she told us as a preview. “For example, I’m thinking I will ask them to complete these sentences: Can anyone describe the feeling of love with their body? How about a gesture for love? Can someone show me a shape of love with their body? How about another shape? How about two people?”
For more information about DVP, visit dvpnyc.org.
Top photo: DVP Eileen Duggan 2019, taken by Meg Goldman
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