Forbidden, Not Foreboding : Solid Gray Dancers Line Up to Learn the Lambada at Seniors Center

Elsie Ettinger planted her 82-year-old hips against Felix Chavez’s considerably younger frame and did the dance that has Southern California panting.

The retired kindergarten teacher and grandmother looked sensible enough with her simple, dark blue skirt, white peasant blouse, and tasteful turquoise beads. But once in Chavez’s capable arms she tossed back her gray tresses with abandon, kicked up her rubber-soled walking shoes and drifted into rhythmic bliss.

Ah, the lambada.

“I love it,” enthused Ettinger, of Sherman Oaks. “It’s close body dancing and very expressionistic. It can be a beautiful dance.”

At least 120 other retirees joined Ettinger on Thursday at the Valley Senior Service and Resource Center in Reseda. It was the last in a series of four lambada classes, and Chavez--who choreographed and dances in the lambada film “Forbidden Dance”--led the session as a favor to his student and friend, Georgia Brooks, the center’s regular dance instructor.

“One-and-two! One-and-two! Get those hips moving!” Chavez ordered as his students happily complied and a few wallflowers pursed their lips in disdain.

The highly sensual dance from Brazil, in which partners gyrate together, is new among the senior center’s 40 classes and was well received, as it has been elsewhere in the country, where it has become a top disco dance.

“Wiggle your tush, wiggle your tush,” commanded Chavez, 56.

One heavyset man walked out. “He said when he holds a lady in his hands he can’t breathe,” explained Milt Grossman, 77, who had been keeping the cynic company.

“What’re you laughing about, ladies?” Chavez asked. “You won’t get pregnant, I assure you!”

Never mind the creaking limbs in brightly colored polyester, or the slight difficulty in hearing the Brazilian beat blaring from the loudspeaker.

“It really got my libido going,” said Blumie Dunn of Reseda, who led a bobbing, weaving conga line to rival that at any wedding.

The center’s dance classes are extremely popular, said its executive director, Estelle Cooper. “Just because a person gets old doesn’t mean they’ve lost their vitality.”

“When we offered it, we weren’t sure how well it would be received,” Cooper said of the lambada class.

But the first class drew nearly 200 people, recalled her assistant, Lola Rabow.

“It’s body contact,” Cooper said. “It’s important to all of us. It’s very nurturing.”