Creative Aging

Rediscovering Ourselves

During the pilot presentation of AFTA’s new program The Rediscovery Project, seniors at Downtown Clusters Geriatric Day Care Center in Washington, DC used art, music and dance to rediscover an era long-past. Participants’ ages ranged from mid-60s to the late-90s.  Depression-era lithographs and drawing created in the 1930’s and 1940’s by the late artist Benjamin Abramowitz provided an illustrated context for the tumultuous American scene of that era.  Abramowitz’s daughter and AFTA Board Chair Susan Rosenbaum shared the history behind the art as well as the artist. AFTA Teaching Artists Anthony Hyatt and Nancy Havlik guided the participants in interpreting the images and reminiscences with movement and song.

The participants were offered a choice of reproductions of the artwork to keep – and as a “hook” for their memories. Memories and music spilled forth as the art-looking transported the group back in time to the seniors’ own rich and layered histories and families. Participants were also privileged to view Abramowitz’s artwork in the exhibition OUT OF THE VAULT at the Woman’s National Democratic Club in Dupont Circle. At the Club, they talked, toured the historic building, and enjoyed refreshments.

Participants shared personal anecdotes as they reflected on the artwork.  Some were joyful and some were poignant.  Several were both joyful and poignant!  During the first Rediscovery Project workshop, participants were asked to pick a lithograph they liked most. One senior, Irene, who is a 65 year old retired custodian and single mother, chose “The Bride”.

When asked why, she said liltingly, “I never got married.” After a pause she added, “But I almost did.”  The group showed great surprise! They spend each weekday together at Downtown Clusters Geriatric Day Care Center in D.C., but Irene had never before told her friends this story.  Then she told them of a man who had proposed to her at a young age. She accepted, but as the wedding neared, she knew she could not marry him and called off the wedding.

A marvelous beauty then unfurled.  The artwork called forth earnestness in Irene that sparked the rest of the group to weave together a tapestry of remembrances: of secret swimming holes, blissful first rides in a car with childhood friends and even a laugh as Irene’s friends gently ribbed her for being a “runaway bride”. In the final workshop of the Rediscovery series, participants enacted scenes from their favorite lithographs under the expert guidance of teaching artists, choreographer Nancy Havlik and violinist Anthony Hyatt. Irene was joined by a delightfully willing gentleman to bring to life “The Bride.”

Walking down the “aisle”, friends looked on in joy and as witnesses to the wedding the beaming Irene “always wanted” — a moment at once impossible and now rediscovered.

Funding for this program provided in part by the Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation,  the Humanities Council of Washington, DC and S.A. Rosenbaum & Associates.

by Merrijoy Vicente

Quicksilver Gets a Visit from an Overseas Fellow

This October AFTA welcomed a visitor from across the pond. Rachel Rogers, Project Development Manager at Merseyside Dance Initiative in Liverpool UK, was visiting the United States via a travel fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and the Baring Foundation.  Her aim was to research performance and community arts practice for, by and with older people. We were thrilled she chose to include a visit with AFTA’s senior dance improvisation troupe Quicksilver in her busy schedule.

When Rachel arrived at our rehearsal in brightly-colored, movement-friendly clothing, we knew she would fit in perfectly!  Rachel gamely took part in Quicksilver’s rehearsal, from warm-up stretches to improvised dance. Quicksilver dancers know how to use space, and in this session the wall was their prop.

After the session, Rachel sat down with us to share more about her work with older adults in the UK. Merseyside Dance Initiative has delivered a program of dance activity for older people since 1999 including regular classes, themed projects, intergenerational and culturally specific projects, special commissions and performance work.  We were particularly interested in Merseyside’s Dance for Parkinson’s program, which included family and caregivers of Parkinson’s patients. Rachel expressed appreciation for Quicksilver’s outreach programs, in which our active seniors engage their more frail peers at AFTA partner centers in group dance.   She also commended Quicksilver for their spontaneity and use of “appreciative dialogue” – when members perform for one another and the observers respond with critical feedback.

Rachel has returned to the UK, but she reflected on her time with Quicksilver in a recent email:

“I found the energy and enthusiasm in your group very exciting as with the level of artistic and  intellectual discussion about the art form.  I loved the fact that it’s not a novelty for these women to want to be involved in dance at this level and that there is responsibility on them to deliver as well as be fed.”

You can read more about Rachel’s adventures exploring creative aging in the United States on her blog.

Don’t miss the story of her visit with Quicksilver!

by Merrijoy Vicente

AFTA Fall Teaching Artist Meeting

Recently our Teaching Artists gathered at AFTA’s offices at Non-Profit Village for their quarterly meeting, an opportunity to reconnect, develop professionally and share stories from their programs – stories like these:

Nancy Havlik

“I repeatedly encounter Jim in my visits to Rockville Nursing Home.  Jim is in a wheelchair and bound by a neck-brace. At first I was apprehensive to interact with him, as he appeared so weak, so seemingly unable and limited. But in one session, when I started to read a poem, Jim began to talk and make comments on the poem. He couldn’t talk loudly, but he’d whisper his thoughts into my ear and I would repeat these to the group. It turned out that Jim used to be a college professor and still has an incredible intellect trapped inside this frail shell. One of the things that makes AFTA great is that, unlike many other programs, AFTA engages with the inner person, and allows that person to express themselves; that same self which is so often ignored in this world because of the body in which it is presented.”

Joan Hampton Fraser

“Recently, one of the regular participants in my Creative Writing class at Lewinsville Adult Day Care Center passed away. When his family visited the center after his death, the staff shared his writing from my program, which they had meticulously saved and copied over the months. None of his family members had realized just how much their loved one was able to remember and still express, and they were incredibly touched to have this writing with which to remember that there was still life inside of him during his final years.”

Annetta Dexter Sawyer

“Once when I was teaching a dance class, there was one woman who, apprehensive and shy, would hide off to the side of the group, wrapped in a blanket. As the music played, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, this movement forming underneath the blanket. Building in momentum with the music, the blanket started to unravel, and like a blossoming flower, she appeared out of it in dance.”

Carol Siegel

“Teaching a class at Alexandria Adult Day Health Care Center, there was one woman who always refused to partake or interact with the other participants. Often she’d leave before the class began, and sometimes halfway through, asking for the nurse to escort her away. During one session I was reading a Lucille Clifton’s poem “i am running into a new year” and this same woman somehow connected with it. She started to interact with the other participants, discussing the poem enthusiastically. It reminded me of the power a poem can have to make that connection, to get through to someone and open them up and change their mood immediately.”

i am running into a new year

i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that i catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises and
it will be hard to let go
of what I said to myself
about myself
when i was sixteen
and twentysix and thirtysix
even thirtysix but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me

Miles Spicer

“I often sing the song ‘Since I Fell For You’ at Downtown Clusters Geriatric Day Care. Usually I sing the first couple of lines before one participant in particular comes over to join me. She loves the song so much and sings it with such passion. When she was a child, she wanted to be a singer, but her father never allowed it. It’s just one of many cases which remind me of how AFTA gives people that opportunity to live their lost dreams. It’s never too late for anyone to grasp at that chance, and it’s our duty to make sure we give people the chance to do so.”

by Merrijoy Vicente