Stage presence--body presence: movement and body experience with the elderly.

As Toni Morrison once said, "Since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how." Liz Lerman, a dancer and choreographer, developed an intergenerational dance company by first training the young dancers in her company, The Dance Exchange, in Washington, DC, to teach and dance with older adults. Lerman's text (1984), prefaced by Samuel Jackson, begins with his commentary on the beauty of her works. Creativity is often arrested in the aged. It is imprisoned by inhibitions, habits, and expectations. When it is released we get a Grandma Moses creating vibrant paintings in the primitive style. If it is never inhibited, we have Picasso creating until the week of his death. Creativity can be released in many ways. . . . The experiences and emotions of older persons can be translated into vibrant, creative works. Usually, however, there must be a program and a setting that encourages and channels free expression into an art form. I, too, believe that each person's movements are beautiful and can be used to express emotion, re-create an event, tell a story, work out an idea, or simply create joy. Dance is an active expression of individuals' willingness to move, learn, and reveal themselves through their bodies as well as to learn, take directions, work harmoniously, share ideas, and rehearse?to grow as artists, both collectively and individually. As the muscles get full play, they are likely to improve in their range of motion, stamina, and agility. The activity of performance builds community, group, and individual expression and communication and helps the group members develop a way to work through life and death issues. To teach dance to older adults, I rely more heavily on the experience of the dance itself than on the therapeutic growth of the individual. If each of us listens to our own individual beat, we can create themes and movements. All forms of creativity, emotional and physical expression, physical movement, intellectual agility, and body health together produce therapeutic growth for elderly persons as well as create vitality for rich and long lives. RUTH She stomps her feet and stands erect in one of the traditional flamenco poses, arms encircling her body, but without the castanets. She is grinning. Her emaciated body is clothed in a flowered skirt, wrapped twice around her waist. A turquoise shirt is knotted below her non-existent chest. "I used to dance every opportunity I could get, and more!" she states emphatically, stamping one foot. "You should have seen me ice skate. Stanley took hundreds of pictures of me in my little ice skating outfit. I was so sexy. And belly-dance. ..." I turn on the radio and flip the dial until it lands on a station playing salsa music. Ruth begins to move. Tentatively at first, she softens her body enough to allow her hips to swing slightly from side to side. Little by little, her body relaxes so that, before the music stops playing, she becomes limber enough to weave a slow pattern that implies a counter-rhythm in her body that contrasts with her graceful side-step floor pattern. "One-two, one-uh two, one-two, one-uh two," she mouths. Her eyes sparkle, her thin wispy hair, ravaged by years of hair dyes and chemotherapy, flows out around her head. She is transformed. Now 75 years old, Ruth has had multiple bouts with cancer. She can hardly digest food, and the amount she can get into her is quickly burned off by vast quantities of nervous energy. She has a coterie of doctors?numbering 21?who cover all the specialties. She added several doctors each time she determined she was faced with another life-threatening illness. She has a larynx condition that makes it difficult for her to use her vocal chords and to get words formed. Talking, even whispering, tires her quickly. Yet, she constantly calls several agencies, ranging from her synagogue and social service organizations to land preservation groups, asking for various services or favors, or berating them for being inefficient or mismanaged. …