CALABASAS : Lively Seniors Cavort for Peers at Gatherings

At age 69, Betty Kaye isn’t afraid to show a little leg.

Costumed in black leotards, magenta sequins and fringe, or Western miniskirts, she and her troupe of dancers, aged 65 to 81, cavort chorus-line-style for their Valley peers at convalescent homes, parties and other gatherings free of charge, at least once a week.

“If you can give a little in life, and make people smile, you get something in return: It makes you happy,” Kaye said. “And I think a lot of us ladies like to stay fit and slender, and be attractive to the men.”

The sprightly Calabasas Mobile Home Park resident started her troupe, Betty Kaye and The Showstoppers, when she became a volunteer dance teacher 10 years ago, after a lifetime of commercial instruction.

Now Kaye teaches weekly fitness and dance classes to seniors in Northridge, Canoga Park and Calabasas. Most of her fellow dancers are women, she said.

“I think most men are a little reticent to come out,” Kaye said, lowering her voice a notch. “It’s that competitive thing, you know.”

But when the Showstoppers perform, twirling and kicking to Sinatra tunes, she said, the men take notice.

Although it’s a far cry from the time when, as a teen-ager in Chicago, she toured Midwestern hotels and nightclubs as a professional dancer, Kaye said she is especially gratified these days after performances at rest homes and hospitals.

“People in wheelchairs are some of our best audiences,” Kaye said. “You can see them liven up. Watching live entertainment is bound to make them happier than watching the boob tube all day.”

After a performance at Reseda Convalescent Hospital, resident Barbara Granfar was one impressed spectator, waxing nostalgic about black-and-white movies and the boundless energy of show tunes.

“They remind me of the dancing in the pictures, from when I was a young girl,” Granfar said. “A lot of us don’t remember all the details from our lives any more, but the feeling of the memories is strong. They--the dancers--they have the feeling.”