less falling down, more falling in love with dance for these older montreal adults

their tap shoes clacked in a percussive rhythm as participants stepped, brushed and stamped their way through a tap dance class at the cummings centre, a community organization serving older montrealers. ranging in age from their 60s through to 90, most had been dancing together for two years and obviously knew what they were doing. and it was abundantly clear that they were having really a lot of fun.over the accompanying music — numbers included the timeless 1954 jazz standard fly me to the moon and the classic 1954 doo-wop song widely known as life could be a dream — instructor sarah johnston smiled as she guided them through the moves and routines she had taught them and provided feedback during this final class of the summer session.a musical theatre artist involved in dance, singing and acting, johnston, 28, has been teaching for a decade and has students of all ages. her older students "are so dedicated and so wanting to be there,” she said. some are rekindling a love for dance they had earlier in life and “they bring such commitment and passion to it.”increasingly, research has shown that dance provides profound physical, cognitive and social benefits for older adults. like many physical activities, dance is good for cardiovascular health and the prevention of chronic illness, annie gauthier, a scientific adviser with the institut national de santé publique du québec (inspq) specializing in the subject of aging and health, said in an interview. the most beneficial activity is one in which people participate willingly and happily, she said. “it’s good to find one we like.”

dance, practised regularly, can increase one’s pace of walking without loss of balance, improve endurance and contribute to reducing the risk of falls, gauthier said. among older quebecers, falls are the leading cause of death and hospitalization attributable to unintentional injuries, according to a 2025 inspq study. studies have shown that dance benefits upper-body and lower-body strength and contributes to preventing cognitive decline, a case study published in 2026 in the journal of ageing and longevity explored the experiences of several older adults in a dance program in canada's national ballet school. beyond reporting improvements in posture, balance and body awareness, participants described mental, emotional and spiritual benefits: dance fostered joy, they said, lifted their spirits, helped them cope with anxiety and strengthened their social connections.at the cummings centre, participation in dance classes including swing, line dancing and tap has increased by 30 per cent since last year, said brenda yuen, director of programs and communications. the centre has increased both the variety and number of classes available, she said.

linda kimelman, a retired speech and language pathologist who joined the tap dance class at cummings two years ago, said: “i really enjoy it, the people are wonderful and the teacher is just amazing. tap has helped my memory — i go through routines in my head to help me get to sleep — and certainly it makes you fitter.”viewing films from their first class “to where we are now, i have seen how our skills have improved. i think everybody has improved their agility. everybody keeps up. it’s wonderful. we had no group cohesion when we started and sarah has molded us into a dance troupe. it’s also social," said kimelman, 74. “people have a lot of fun in the class,” said fellow participant patricia mckinley. “we have become friendly. and when we get tapping, you hear one sound: that’s how together we are. we all leave the class very happy."dance has a strong psycho-social aspect, which includes a strengthening of a person’s positive body image," she said. "there is an end point with dance and it is that you have a real accomplishment."participants now know how to tango or tap dance or jitterbug and, at the same time, increase their balance, core strength and agility, "and it’s more fun than doing standard exercises," said mckinley, a retired professor of kinesiology, exercise and neuroscience in mcgill university's school of physical and occupational therapy.tap dance classes are helpful “because of the various combinations of steps used and the way these steps can be recombined in unique ways. a lot of people think tap dancing is too difficult: it isn’t," she said.

“it trains you to think with your feet. as you practise, the speed with which you can do these movements is increased. in my opinion, it helps one to become much more responsive to perturbations so that one may be able to recover balance more quickly when stumbling or tripping over something. it really works your balance a lot and makes it easier to recover if you start to fall."the problem when older people fall is that “we are at risk of becoming frail,” said mckinley, 83. “we have these aging bodies and things that can go wrong. what i have found really important is that tap makes you much more agile. "she led a 2004-2005 study looking at dance as a vehicle for balance, strength and cognitive health in older adults. thirty participants, ages 62 to 91, were recruited from the cummings centre. all had fallen within the previous year and had developed a fear of falling. half were assigned to argentine tango lessons and half to a walking group. the tango group showed more improvement over 10 weeks than the walking group in terms of balance, posture and motor coordination and its subjects performed significantly better at doing a complex cognitive tasks while walking, standing on one foot or turning in confined spaces.mckinley went on to be involved in many studies on the effects of dance on community and physical and psycho-social health – she still participates in some research – and has worked with researchers at the université de montreal, université du québec à montréal, concordia university, mcgill and rehabilitation centres to explore how dance therapy can be an adjunct to rehabilitation for people who have disabilities or face other challenges.

considerably more research is being done today than even six or seven years ago into the benefits of dance and the experience and joy of dancing, said joanabbey sack, a montreal dance movement therapist and part-time faculty member in concordia’s department of creative arts therapies. “a lot of my work has been with people who have a disability or don’t feel comfortable going into a regular dance class,” said the co-founder of parkinson en mouvement, which offers adapted dance and movement classes for people with parkinson's disease.“dance provides an occasion to be in synch, to feel in the rhythm of something,” said sack, co-author of a 2020 study that showed that dance movement therapy with an emphasis on improvisational dance resulted in gains in balance and cognition for people with parkinson’s."what we say a lot is that dance is exercise in disguise,” said emma chen, a 27-year-old phd candidate in concordia's department of health, kinesiology & applied physiology who is studying how dance can help with balance in older adults.“we want something that's social, that’s fun, that people enjoy and that keeps them physically active," said chen, who grew up dancing, did professional summer dance intensives and started to teach dance at 16.her masters thesis investigated whether online dance classes could help improve balance in older women; she found that dance helped reduce sway, the amount we move when we’re supposed to be standing still: too much sway is associated with a higher risk of falls.

for her phd, chen is investigating how walking among older adults changes with dancing. it is known that people tend to walk more slowly as they age and that those who walk at a pace of less than one metre per second are at a higher risk of falls. the goal of her research is to see whether line dancing can maintain or improve the pace of walking.she is working with participants at the cummings centre to evaluate the role of line dancing – on its own and when it's combined with blood flow restriction, in which a small amount of blood flow is reduced to an exercising muscle to make dancing "a little more physiologically intense." "and part of our interest is also looking at the difference of in-person and online classes," chen said. the study started last september and should last another year; results so far have been promising.she also created seated online dance classes for the montreal organization respecting elders: communities against abuse as part of a grant facilitated by concordia's interdisciplinary centre for research on aging, engage, where she is the board's student representative. alongside her research, chen is a passionate dance teacher, working online with older adults across quebec and ontario and as far away as mexico and spain.

katrina journeau is director of primadanse, a montreal-based social economy enterprise that uses dance as a vehicle for social inclusion and helps participants express feelings and navigate stress. instructors visit seniors’ residences, municipal libraries and schools.“after a session with primadanse, people feel more engaged,” she said. “if they see someone from their session at the grocery store, there’s already a connection. the exercises are good for the body, and for the heart and soul. and we work with people’s capacities.”the sessions, journeau said, are less about choreography than they are about movement.one morning this month at a primadanse workshop at the pierrefonds library, instructor serginho jean-pierre, a dancer, told a group of 15 seniors wriggling their fingers in a warmup exercise to close their eyes and imagine they were playing the piano. “just get lost in the music: focus on the music and let your body respond to it," he said.next, he directed them to pretend their right hand was a fish and their left arm an elephant trunk and to move both accordingly. they responded in unison, smiling as they did.

at a glance

the cummings centre will offer several kinds of dance classes among the programs in its fall-winter session. register online starting aug. 24 at cummingscentre.org/membership, 514-343-3510, or in person at 5700 westbury ave. primadanse workshops are available for older adults, young people, athletes and others throughout quebec.sschwartz@postmedia.com

'i do because i can but i can because i do.'

“when you get older, you have to move,” said johanne gagné, a participant in a tap dance class at the cummings centre. “i am never going to stop. i did ballet and jazz dance also and like country line dancing, but i wanted to tap dance," said the 67-year-old retired fashion designer. “it helps you to get more coordinated and learning steps is very good for your mind.”for fellow participant carol smith, a retired nurse, “all kinds of dancing is very joyful. and it’s good for your balance. with cummings, it’s all seniors, so you are on a similar level. we are not competitive and we all have fun,” she said.“i do because i can but i can because i do.”mitsuru cope lives in a seniors’ residence and does line dancing and boogie-woogie dance because “i like moving my body, learning new steps and, best of all, socializing with other participants." to the 78-year-old lachine resident, “laughing is the best medicine for happy living."for clement and lily lam, who have been married for 50 years, dancing together “is a way to keep going and to keep the flame going,” said clement, professor emeritus of computer science and software engineering at concordia university. they have taken ballroom dancing and artistic tango classes together and are now doing line dancing. they enjoy dancing together "and dance is more fun than just exercising," he said.hazel blenman has taken belly dance at the contactivity centre, a montreal community centre for adults 60 and older, and does line dancing at the cummings centre. “i love dancing. i have a lot of rhythm in me and it gives me so much pleasure. it's also good for the brain," said blenman, 81. "and the words of some songs bring me to tears."for agnes yip, who has done zumba and belly dance classes at contactivity, dance is absorbing and energizing. "when the instructor shows you the way to dance with the song, your mind has to listen to the music and remember the steps the instructor shows you: it helps you to energize your body and mind at the same time."