Health & Fitness Issue 2019: Dance is all about connections, community and expression

THE WEEKLY DANCE at the Renton Senior Activity Center once took place on Friday evenings, but the dancers didn’t like driving in the dark. So now they pack the center on Thursday afternoons, coming from Seattle and beyond to dance to the stylings of Bill the Dance Master, known for mixing up the tempo between a fast song and a slow swing, before moving on to a rumba or a country-and-western song. Bright light pours into the high-ceilinged room, where some dancers are dressed in spangly kitten heels and glittery skirts that twirl during spins. RELATED: The Backstory: How do we move in Seattle? It’s hard to count all the ways. Gene S. Moy, 102, learned to dance in 1941, when he was stationed in California for the U.S. Army. He learned the swing, waltz, cha-cha and rumba, among others, and danced the five years he served. He stopped dancing while raising four kids, but started again after he retired in the 1980s from his mechanic job at Boeing. “Once you learn how, you never lose it,” says Moy, who dances to every song and sits down in between. “It’s exercise you enjoy doing. You don’t feel tired.” The dancers range in age from their 50s to Moy’s century-plus, but almost no one is using a wheelchair, cane or walker. Credit the dancing, maybe. Advertising The reasons to dance are much more layered than health. Dance is a smile, and eye contact, and the fun in asking a new partner to dance to each new song. Dance is a toddler tap class, where the parents are just as joyful as their 2-year-olds. Dance is laughing at yourself when you fumble the footwork. Dance is sharing your story. Tracey Wong shares her stories and finds healing through the culture and […]

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