Dancing with a walker: new activities for seniors

By Irena Guettel Nov 24, 2011, 2:07 GMT

Berlin - Fitness studios and sport clubs are seeing an increase in the number of senior citizens among their membership, which can be attributed at least in part to the fact that as people age, they would like to stay as active as possible.

To accommodate their older members, studios and clubs are offering a variety of activities, including modified karate and other courses to improve balance as well as unconventional activities such as dancing with the support of a walker.

In Stuhr, a small community on the outskirts of Bremen in Germany, six elderly women have been attending a walker-aided dance course. Inge Duefelmeier and the other dancers are still reasonably good on their feet, but they can't burn up the dance floor the way they once did. In the weekly course they use their walkers for support to polka, waltz and dance an Irish folk dance.

Duefelmeier, 81, uses a walker she inherited from her sister three years ago. She takes the walker out of the basement storeroom once a week to attend the course.

'I can't turn around quickly any more,' said Duefelmeier. 'I get dizzy.' At a recent session she pushed the walker toward her elderly partner, stopping just before the supports crashed together. Then she turned around deftly and pushed the walker back to where she started.

The course begins with the participants sitting down to do stretch exercises and a warmup. As a slow waltz thumps through loudspeakers, dance teacher Katja Schauland tells the dancers to release the brakes on their walkers. Then the women put their walkers to the side and do movements in a circle.

Ida Bode, 84, one of the participants, glows with enthusiasm.'I used to love to dance with my husband,' she said. But he has been dead for many years and Bode's hips do not want to cooperate with her any longer. She hardly ever leaves her home, but to dance she makes an exception.

'The goal of the course is, of course, that the participants get moving again,' said Schauland. 'It's also about trusting themselves to get out and accepting that the walker is a help.'

There are only a few walker-aided dance courses available in Germany and most of them are in living facilities for senior citizens or at senior citizens centres. However, dance schools also have discovered the idea, which originated in the Netherlands.

'People are living longer and staying healthier in their old age,' said Christian Goetsch of a German association for dance instructors. Because of this change in demographics dance schools must increasingly adjust their programmes to meet the needs of the active older group.

In August the association offered its first continuing education course on dancing with the aid of a walker. The instructors learned new versions of classic dances such as the foxtrot, the tango and the samba. Many of the steps have to be altered considerably in order to do them with a walker. 'It can move well to the front or back, but sideways only with difficulty,' said Juergen Ball, director of the dance instructor association.

Sport clubs in Germany are beginning to recognize that a growing percentage of the population is over 65. In Germany nearly 17 million people - more than 20 per cent of the population - were over that age in 2009. The clubs aim to meet the needs of this age group by offering courses not only in dancing, but also activities such as walking, table tennis and badminton.

Fitness studios also are tailoring their programmes to the older age group even though they usually are the domain of young muscle-packing men and extremely fit females well able to jump around in loud group exercise classes. Many studios are teaching karate to grannies, breaking down the preconception that they are weak.

'Our oldest beginner is 81,' said Wolfgang Weigert, vice president of the German karate association. Almost all of the 2,300 member clubs in the association offer gentle karate. 'We go about everything casually,' said Weigert. Competitions and skill tests for increasing the belt level are marginal and the kicks don't have to go above the knee.

Older people who participate in karate maintain not only their fitness, but also increase their concentration and their level of happiness, according to a study by the University of Regensburg. Because karate improves balance, the elderly people who do it also gain some protection against falling.