Skip to main content

Dance Lessons for Activities Directors


Seniors going Gangnam Style makes the news because of the trendy moves they are doing in their retirement community! I love it when the world gets to see that seniors are not all sitting in their rocking chairs knitting!

This week at my community, we had our annual holiday gala dance. I had received a call from my entertainer for the night saying that he was sick and was sending someone else in his place. My thoughts went from "oh crap" to "oh yea" to "uh oh." The fear of the unknown performer on one of the most popular high-end events of the year! Well, turns out that I learned two lessons this week when preparing for the event.

The first thing that I learned is, that if you have a good working relationship with a professional entertainer, he will take good care of you, even if he is not there. I had an entertainer cancel earlier in the month, but he did not find a replacement for himself and left me with nothing. The difference that I can see is that the first one that I mentioned for my gala dance is a professional performer who I've worked with for years. The other man is a church organist, who also works in an organ store, and performs on the side. This was the second time that I contacted him to play for us.... since he is one of the few in the area who can actually tackle our fancy organ!  I think I will try to include something in the contracts in advance about getting replacements and see how that goes over.......

The second lesson that I learned is, that just like at the parties that you go to, there needs to be a fun person that gets things started. The dance floor was full the whole night thanks to the dance host that I hired, but when the Twist came on there was nobody! I will tell you that I can not dance the way the residents do with the Swing, Fox Trot, Rumba, Waltz, etc., so they almost never see me on the dance floor... unless it is doing the Electric Slide or the Chicken Dance.  But the Twist?!?  I couldn't let that pass. I grabbed one of my younger, single ladies and got started with her and then Twisted my way around the room and got others out on the floor until it was full. It was the perfect way to end the night and we all had a blast. 

If you have dancing skills, don't let them go to waste. Yes,we are there to "work" and make sure that there is enough to drink on the table, that the air conditioner is right for the dancers, but not freezing for the listeners, etc., but then take time to really make the party a success - and that is with your own personal connection to it! I love to take time to go from table to table and sit down. "How are you enjoying the party?" is a good opener or "I haven't had a minute to talk with you lately, how are you?"  Residents love to have the personal contact that only you can offer. 

Comments

  1. I love this post, you are so wise, I don't really.
    I think I'm still trying to find that 'purpose that's higher than myself' - I loved that line incidentally.
    Private Dance Lessons

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We just had our Winter Wonderland Party and we had a bunch of Middle school and High School kids come to Volunteer! They new all the dance steps and some of the seniors joinned them!The others enjoyed watching the show! As an Activities Director I was right up their with them!

      Delete
    2. That is terrific! Thanks for sharing it!!

      Delete
  2. correction They knew

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great blog you people have maintained there, I totally appreciate the work.
    SK

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Thank you. Please make sure to click "join this site" so that you can receive updates as I add information! It's free!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Styles of Scavenger Hunts

Boy is it hot outside! If you are like me you may still be looking for indoor activities that are fun for your residents to do. This activity that I will share with you can be done for different levels of care in your retirement community. I encourage you to share it with the other activity professionals that work in those other areas within your own community. The activity is the Scavenge Hunt. This can be done in three different ways and I will describe them below: 1)       The Stay Seated Scavenger Hunt v   Ask audience to bring in items they think will be asked for. Encourage them to fill their purses, pockets, bags, etc. and bring it to the event v   Make a list of items that they could bring with them v   Include items that would be funny, that might have a story to go with them, or that people would be surprised someone would actually have. (Green Stamps anyone?) v   See the list I used v   Cut the list into pieces and place them into a basket v   Ask

Super Bowl Party for Seniors

It is almost here! The 46th Super Bowl game will be held on Sunday, February 5 in Indinapolis. Each year, residents in my retirement community want to have a viewing party for the big game. I believe that it is a fun program to make an activity out of, but not something that I must do every year. Mostly, I don't have this each year because there are not to many ways to change it up, so I don't want to have it become boring. (This is where your ideas would be great to hear!!) This year, we are going to have a party and I'd like to share with you the plans for the evening. Residents are now signing up for the program which is set to start at 6:00 p.m.  This time is perfect in my community because we still serve dinner at noon on Sundays and the residents usually like to attend for the food, if for no other reason. (I do charge them a fee for the food.) We will have the game showing on our big screen tv in the auditorium and tables and chairs set up for the residents to eat

4 Pictures 1 Word Game for the Big Screen

Many of you who have played 4 Pictures 1 Word , know that this brain game is available as an app for your computer, tablet or phone for free. That is great, bu it does not allow a team to play and is not audience friendly if you wanted to present it at your retirement community (or other social gathering).  After some time and effort, I made a 4 Pictures and 1 Word game  slide show that you can use in your community. I did use the app for suggestions and the Internet for the pictures. I am glad to share this with you so that you will not have to spend the hours that I did in creating this game. If you get the urge to make one also, please come back to this blog page and share it.  I played this last week with a group of about 25 independent living residents.We did not get through all of the slides due to time constraints..... but I was glad I did not run out of slides in my hour that I had their attention. I will be playing this with them again... and would love to have other