This 4-minute film of a grayhair dancing was on a college humor site promising funny videos. I love his moves, I love Gaga’s music. Doesn’t he seem to be enjoying what he is doing? Of course he can outdance the college kids trying vainly to keep up with him.

What I hate is the message that it’s ridiculous and laughable to see a man with gray hair dancing with zest or at all. Dancing is such a high. It is revitalizing. So is the music, when it has some pep and life to it. My father danced so much that I had the adjective “dancing” inscribed on his headstone. It kept him smiling, alive, upbeat and happy his whole life. He didn’t stop even after his leg was hit by a car in his 70′s. He was doing the cha cha, foxtrot, mambo, and other steps late into his 80′s.

There has always been this idea that when you are over 40, you are supposed to “put away childish things,” be dignified and not act like a youngster. I remember dating those dames who bought that bullshit—they were like the walking wounded, more dead than alive. Boh-ring. Yet at the same time, our society reveres youth and convinces oldsters to dress and look like they are younger than their years. So you have millions over 50 wearing denim like they are teenagers; paying for face lifts, botox, tummy tucks and uplifts; and dyeing hair or plugging scalps to look like they did decades ago. Totally contradictory.

“Act your age.” How many times have I heard that reprimand? Or maybe it was, “You know Ira, he doesn’t act his age.” Who wants to? Movement and aerobics are what keep you young and healthy, along with a good diet. I’ve been dancing since I was in elementary school, then meeting tourist girls, so we could cha cha cha in the dance rooms of Miami Beach hotels, where I worked in high school. I took jazz dancing in my 30′s with professionals near Carnegie Hall (who of course danced rings and hoops around me, when I couldn’t remember all of the instructor’s steps). Now I strut my stuff at weddings and other parties plus a few Zumba classes.

You can really work up a sweat on the dance floor. It can be far more than a little pitty pat that has you looking cool as you do the two bland steps that blend you into the crowd. To hell with that. Express yourself. Be creative. Cultivate some originality. Don’t even think about being shy when you dance.

I remember one high school reunion when an Elvis impersonator (shades and white jump suit with reflective buttons) was belting out the old songs. I came down to the hotel’s night club a bit after my classmates and was just inside the door. There were Larry and Diane, two of the best dancers in our class of ’58, dancing as energetically and almost as gracefully as they had 35 years ago. They could still impress me with their style and sweeps. Maybe they had gained a few pounds, maybe lost some hair or used hair color. I don’t recall. But they could move.

Next to me were younger non-reunion hotel guests—maybe in their 20′s— watching these two “old people” (in their 50′s) twist and rock on the floor. But these “kids” were also laughing at what they saw more objectively: two grandfolks dancing like they were teenagers. They thought it was ridiculous. They couldn’t stop giggling at the spectacle. I was hurt and upset. Maybe I should have decked them, or at least shut them up. They saw oldsters acting “inappropriately.” I saw revived life. As Michaelangelo cut the stone away to reveal the David hidden within, the music—in my opinion— had cut loose the inner child from the stiff and aging bodies on the dance floor.

Well it’s your choice. I have friends in their 50′s up here in Connecticut who take tango lessons and then go to Argentina with their dancemates. Sounds like fun to me. I have friends who go to Roseland or other places where you can dance more formally with strangers. It sounds fantastic. Are you ready? What are you waiting for? You know you don’t live forever…

Tags: dance till dawn and while you can, dancing as exercise, dancing for all ages, fear on the dance floor, moving to music, music for upbeat living