Abstract
In this article, we draw upon the experiences of mature recreational dancers who participated in classes facilitated by a professional ballet company and catered to older adults. Moving with 11 women through a 10-week ballet course, and immersing ourselves in the empirical material, we recognized opportunities for broadening our analysis of aging dancing bodies. Inspired by a Latourian understanding of bodies and a recent new materialist turn in humanities and social sciences, we became curious about the ways that the women were being affected by their experiences in ballet. The ballet studio, the barre, muscles, sweat, and music were all discussed as influential aspects contributing to their understandings of aging and dancing. Moving beyond biomedical prescriptions and extending socio-cultural constructions, we reveal opportunities for Latourian theory to dance with us toward re-imagining what is possible for aging recreational ballet dancers. Here, we allow the women's articulations of aging in ballet to exist as unique expressions unbound by limitations. Moving with women as they learn to become more affected through dance, we are given the opportunity to think about bodies, ballet and aging differently.
Highlights
The demographics of the world are changing with research revealing that is our global population increasing, it is aging (Krekula et al, 2017)
We are interested in the ways that aging recreational dancers are simultaneously absorbing and releasing their limited beliefs about their moving bodies while finding new opportunities for experiences in ballet that extend beyond the confines of their bodily boundaries
Through our Latourian analysis of aging women’s experiences in recreational ballet, we revealed new possibilities for mature populations in dance classes
Summary
The demographics of the world are changing with research revealing that is our global population increasing, it is aging (Krekula et al, 2017). Studies on aging and physical activity, those engaging qualitative inquiry, reveal how varied approaches to research can illuminate nuanced meanings that this growing population of mature adults are ascribing to their movement experiences (Markula et al, 2001; StevensRatchford, 2016). We discuss aging women’s experiences in recreational ballet classes to reveal insights that expand upon images typically associated with aging in a Westernized context (i.e., decline and loss) (Wainwright and Turner, 2006; Nakajima, 2011; Coupland, 2013). While examples of exceptional professional dancers like Martha Graham and Twyla Tharpe may extend beyond what is possible for recreational dancers, these women provide inspiration and Articulations of Aging illustrate how aging does not necessarily need to be associated with a steady process of physical and cognitive decline (Nakajima, 2011). We are interested in the ways that aging recreational dancers are simultaneously absorbing and releasing their limited beliefs about their moving bodies while finding new opportunities for experiences in ballet that extend beyond the confines of their bodily boundaries
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