Gliding Grannies : Ageless Aquadettes, 57 to 85, in the Swim

At 76, Eileen Allen is recovering from back surgery and suffering from arthritis.

But forget for a moment about those afflictions. Eileen Allen, at least on this night, has been transformed into a “Little Mermaid,” hot pink swimsuit, turban, red lipstick and all.

As the music from “Under the Sea,” the theme song of the popular Disney children’s movie, blares, Allen and eight other women plunge into the pool, bounce off the bottom and in perfect unison swim like dolphins and resurface in a circle. A crowd of about 350 spectators bursts into applause.

Welcome to the grand performance of the Aquadettes--average age 73--water ballerinas and synchronized swimmers from the Leisure World retirement community.

After six months of preparation, the Aquadettes on Thursday opened their 26th annual show, dubbed Aqua Follies, to rave reviews.

“For these women to be able to do this is incredible,” said 77-year-old Norman Balch, the master of ceremonies. “Can you imagine your grandmother or your great-grandmother kicking up her legs like this?”

The water ballet is one of the hottest shows inside the walls of this gated community of 21,000 people. Tickets for the four performances, which ends Sunday night, were gone only four days after they went on sale.

“We wouldn’t miss the opening for anything,” said 73-year-old Jeanne Burens, a synchronized swimmer who made the two-hour journey with 46 other retirees from Sun City in Riverside County. “You appreciate it more when you know how difficult the numbers are.”

The Aquadettes--there are 25 of them ranging in age from 57 to 85--began as a group of ordinary swimmers 27 years ago until an ambitious member had the idea that they should go public.

Their success has since landed them appearances on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and Italian and Japanese television. Only last year, the advertising executives of Long John Silver’s restaurant chain paid “a tidy sum” to have them star in a commercial, according to Bette Ring, the group’s president.

The publicity has made the group a source of pride for Leisure World, where many residents refer to the women as “Neptune’s daughters” and “million-dollar mermaids.”

But these women joke that they know that fame and fortune don’t come easy, so after their show is over, they begin preparing for the next year. They sew their own costumes, choreograph their own numbers and even help erect bleachers for the show.

But they agree that the most difficult part of the job are the three-hour-long practices twice a week. An Aquadette must not only be able to do the crawl, breast- and backstrokes but also must be able to perform a ballet leg, a porpoise dive, back flips, back somersaults and, most important, swim in time to music.

The routines are especially challenging for some of the Aquadettes who have had strokes, mastectomies, or heart and back surgery. A few of the swimmers remove their hearing aids before they enter the pool, and say they can swim in time only by watching the others.

For many of these women, the group is more like a sorority than a swimming club. The majority are widows, so when illness or other adversity befalls a member, the others rally to her side.

“We all have to pitch in when any of us needs help,” Allen said, “because we are all we have.”

This year, the troupe dressed in clown’s costumes and guided floats of horses, tigers and elephants through hoops in the pool.

But the surprise was a number taken from “Phantom of the Opera.” The lights were switched off at the Leisure World pool, allowing the reflection of the moon to flicker on the water. As the first strains of “Music of the Night” were heard, nine figures in white mask and capes appeared in front of different sections of the audience, their capes fluttering to the beat.

Then, one after the other, they plunged into the pool.

As the music reached a crescendo, nine legs shot up at the same time, feet flexed, toes pointed. More applause. Among those in the audience was 23-year-old Tami Dow of Orange, who had come to see her grandmother perform.

“It’s my third show and they never cease to amaze me,” Dow said, noting that she had tried unsuccessfully to learn the numbers. “They’re good, I mean absolutely great for a bunch of grannies.”