Dance and Older People: An Interview with Catherine Baumgartner

This interview is reprinted from the May 2005 issues of Creative Aging, an e-newsletter of the National Center for Creative Aging, (NCCA). The monthly topic was "A Growing Movement: Dance and Older People." –Ed.

Kairos Dance Theatre, Dancing Heart - Walker, photo ©Rich Ryan, Skyway News 2005

Catherine Baumgartner is a member of Kairos Dance Theatre, a renowned intergenerational dance company. She is also a member of the Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging Network, an NCCA Network based in Minneapolis, Minn.

Baumgartner was a delegate to the May 18-19, 2005, Creativity and Aging conference, an official mini-conference of the 2005 White House Conference on Aging co-sponsored by the National Endowment on the Arts, the American Association of Retired People, The International Music Products Association and the National Center for Creative Aging. [This conference provided input for the first White House Conference on Aging, December 11-14, 2005, in Washington, D.C.]

In this interview, Baumgartner responds to questions about her career, about the state of the field of dance for older people and the goals of the Creativity and Aging Conference. —Renya Larson, editor, Creative Aging

Editor: What is your professional background?

Catherine Baumgartner

Baumgartner: I have always been a dancer. I also worked with the Minnesota Dance Alliance for several years as a contract project coordinator. From 1999 to 2003, I worked with Marylee Hardenbergh, a site-specific choreographer. It was through Marylee that I met Maria Genne, the founder of Kairos Dance Theatre. Working with Marylee and Kairos has had a major impact on how I think about dance. I've developed quite a passionate interest in dance's broader relationship to community.

Editor: What interests you about dance and its relationship to community?

Baumgartner: I am interested in how dance allows communities to experience things through movement that can't be expressed in words. For example, people have said that seeing Kairos perform — seeing ages from nine to 91 represented in our dances — is a reminder of what community could be like. The performance is more than the concept of community: dancing together is a way to experience community on an energetic and kinesthetic level.

Editor: How did you become involved in Kairos?

Baumgartner: In 2000, Maria was developing Kairos' first dance project for older adults in partnership with the Volunteers of America/Minnesota South West Senior Center. Maria asked me to be one of the facilitators. It was the first time I had been involved in any way with older adults.

Editor: How has working with Kairos impacted you as a dancer?

Baumgartner: Dancing with elders has added a good 25 years to my concept of what it means to be a vibrant older adult. That even if you move more slowly or with less range of motion, you can definitely still dance. I think of Kairos member Ocie May Young. She's 91, and the woman can boogie down like you wouldn't believe!

Editor: As a delegate to the Creativity and Aging Conference, I understand you have been researching the dance outlets available to older people in this country. What is your overall impression?

Baumgartner: I've been primarily looking into intergenerational dance companies that include older adults as performing members or that offer dance learning opportunities for older adults.

My sense is that many senior centers across the country offer some kind of dance, for example line dancing or folk dancing. However, it seems that in most cases these programs use dance as a social outlet or a form of exercise. Dance programs for older people that explore dance as an art form do exist, but there are fewer of them.

Perhaps this is because there's a widespread belief in our society that older people aren't capable of dancing. What's interesting to me is that I have the sense that almost the opposite is true in some cultural communities: elders are honored as the "keepers" and teachers of dance, and they regularly dance in ceremonies and celebrations. Mainstream American society needs a perceptual model for dance and older people.

Editor: What other factors prevent more dance outlets from being more widely available to older people?

Performance - Como ©Michael Nelson 2005

Baumgartner: Training is key. Kairos often hears recreational therapists and activity directors say that they want to do dance work with older people but they don't feel qualified. They don't know dance as an art form. On the other side, professional dancers need to learn about working with older people. There are dance schools that offer adult dance classes, but they are generally not inclusive of older people. These classes just aren't designed for people who might move a little more gently or a little slower. That isn't to say that there aren't people in their 70s and maybe even 80s taking flamenco or jazz dance — I'm sure they're out there too!

Another factor is funding. In order to attract funding, dance programs that target older people need to become more articulate to potential funders about the holistic benefits of dance.

For example, there was a 2003 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that tracked older people in a range of leisure activities. Dance was the only physical leisure activity that correlated with a decreased likelihood of the onset of dementia (article is available at www.nejm.org). It's also key that we talk to funders about older people dancing not just from a health perspective, but from an artistic perspective. Older adults deserve to be acknowledged as dance artists with unique gifts to share.

Editor: What do you hope the conference will achieve?

Baumgartner: The field of Arts and Aging is a converging pathway between arts and health and social services, and it's up to us in the field to explain this convergence and its significance. Many Arts and Aging programs are so new that we have not yet had the chance as practitioners to join our thinking or even develop a common vocabulary. It's like we each have a little bit of the thinking in our heads and we need the conference to bring our thinking together. That is one of my hopes.

Editor: I also understand that the conference delegates will write a resolution that will be forwarded to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, and that this resolution will call for a federal stream of funding for creative programs for older people. Is that true?

Baumgartner: Yes. And I hope that whatever resolution we put together will be a compelling one. So that when it reaches the White House Conference, the delegates there will recognize its importance.

Editor: Best of luck at the conference!

Baumgartner: Thank you!

Kairos Dance Theatre, photo ©Michael Nelson 2005

Renya Larson is the editor of Creative Aging, an e-newsletter of the National Center for Creative Aging in Brooklyn, N.Y. Published six times a year, Creative Aging includes interviews and profiles of elder artists and practitioners, highlights of promising practices and model programs, advice on how to begin and/or sustain programs and a national listing of performances, exhibits, publications and trainings. To subscribe (free), e-mail : ncca@creativeaging.org.

Original CAN/API publication: October 2005