Ballet Keeps Her On Her Toes : Dance instructor Iris Merrick shares a lifelong passion--for 20 cents a lesson.

Dance is Iris Merrick’s life. What’s remarkable about that is that her life is 82 years long. And Merrick has no plans to hang up her ballet slippers.

She is in her fifth year of teaching weekly dance classes at a senior center for 20 cents a lesson.

“I love teaching,” she said. “I get such a kick out of it when I see someone improve.”

Born to Russian immigrants, Merrick was reared in a small Wisconsin town. When she was a youngster, an aunt took her to study ballet in New York City, where she was accepted into the prestigious School of American Ballet. There, she studied with Michel Fokine, a renowned ballet master and choreographer.

Because money was short, Merrick began performing and touring professionally at the age of 16. She worked on anything in which she could dance, including musicals, theater and comedy shows on Broadway. Along the way, she learned how to select music, choreograph, direct, produce and design costumes. It was that experience, she said, that planted a seed in her mind about someday opening a ballet school.

She married and had four children, all the while continuing to dance. In 1951, she founded the Westchester Ballet Company in Tarrytown, N.Y. “I started the ballet school so they (children) would know what it is like in the theater,” she said. “I was the first in America to start a regional ballet company, in 1951.” For some 30 years, she directed the classical ballet school.

She retired in 1984 and moved to Los Angeles to spend more time with her children and grandchildren. But retirement didn’t last long.

“I was taking a folk-dancing class when someone asked if I wanted to teach again, and I thought, why not,” she said.

Merrick began teaching weekly classes at the Felicia Mahood Senior Center and Older Adult Services and Information System five years ago. Students there learn classical dance and make new friends. Merrick has her classes listen to selections such as the “Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake” in addition to their work at the barre. She tells students that ballet is a form of exercise that develops the body to its highest potential and that anyone at any age can do it.

Merrick’s class is one of the most popular at the center.

“I always wanted to study ballet, but I had to wait until I was a senior to take the class,” said Margurite Calkin, a fourth-year student. “It shows you that you don’t have to fold up and go into a nursing home.”

Merrick teaches senior citizens of all abilities. One of her students is Bluma Keller, a 65-year-old who suffers from an advanced case of Alzheimer’s disease. She attends the class regularly with the assistance of a nurse. Although Keller has limited interaction with fellow students, she responds to the music, Merrick said.

Merrick, who is a survivor of lung cancer, attributes her longevity to the power of positive thinking and the joy ballet has brought to her life.

“I am an optimistic person and grateful for what I have,” she said. “My feeling is that if something isn’t life-threatening, you are just wasting your time worrying about it.”

On Sunday, the 82-year-old ballerina was named the 1992 Outstanding Senior Citizen in the music/arts category by Century City Hospital. Merrick was nominated by students in her ballet class. Longtime friend and student Lily Guttenberg said it was a well-deserved honor.

“She’s doing a lot for others,” she said.