Time to Retire?

[pygmalion]

I was out googling today and ran across Marcus and Karen Hilton's web page (cute baby pictures, btw 8) :D )

When reading through their bios/ I noticed something fairly obvious. All the accomplishment listings stopped abruptly in 1998. They retired, not? And that made me think. When is it time to retire from dancing? How do you know when you've reached your own personal potential and it's time to move on and allow the next generation to step up?

Obviously, I'm talking about competitive dancers, here. But what about social dancers? Is there a time when they, too, need to hang up the dance shoes? How does one know when?

[Warren J. Dew]

Marcus and Karen were still pretty far ahead of the crowd when they retired ... one possibility is that they didn't want to delay having a baby any longer!

But retiring from social dance? That doesn't seem like something one would get too old for.

[Sakura]

But retiring from social dance? That doesn't seem like something one would get too old for.

*nods* I can't see someone getting too old to just have fun dancing socially! As far as I'm concerned, the day I stop dancing is the day something happens to me that totally incapacitates me (And hopefully, the only thing that'll be doing that in my lifetime is Death -- and hopefully that's waaaaaaay down the road for me! :shock: :D :wink: ), and that's it! :D

Sakura Kitty :kitty:

[Sagitta]

Have those two completely stopped dancing? Or is it only competitively? It really depends on the person. I know that I never would. As age and infirmities catch up I would have to have to change and not be able to danec the way I did when young, but I'm pretty sure I never would stop dancing. There is this, I think, 80 or so year old guy who comes to folk dances and he jumps in when he can. Otherwise, just learns the steps by watching the people, but stops after a while as he cannot keep on doing really vigorous dancing.

And since this is a ballroom thread I've seen really old people do social dancing. They may not do samba or jive though. And I've seen quite a few middle aged people start dancing too. Joining me in classes!! :D

[Sakura]

You're definitely right with the fact that the Dances done will have to be toned down as Age takes over the body and forces the Youth to reside within oneself, but there's definitely no reason why the shoes have to be hung up permanently for a little thing like age! :D 8)

Or maybe this is my youthful opinion, eh? :twisted: Someday, we'll find out!

Sakura Kitty :kitty:

(PS-Of course, I may be smoten down by my Awesome Elders before that happens, so I must vow to stay on the good side of people who have the power to crush me! :wink: )

[Genesius Redux]

maybe this is my youthful opinion, eh? :twisted: Someday, we'll find out!

This is definitely a youthful opinion. I'm way stronger and in far better shape than I was at 21.... :wink:

[Pacion]

To paraphrase Celia Cruz, who once said (or said several times) that as long as there is breath in her body, she will sing. Well, as long as there is breath in my body, "juice in the batteries" and the hip joints and knees are still able, I will continue to dance. :banana:

(For the sanity of the people around me, I have to keep dancing anyway, as I get really grumpy otherwise :lol: )

[pygmalion]

She was a diva! :notworth: A moment of silence.






I started this thread for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that I started dancing in my thirties, the same age range where a lot of ballroom competitors retire. :shock: I'm okay with it, though, because I'm in this for the long haul. Dance is part of me now. 8)

[Pacion]

Yes, Pygamlion, but remember these ballroom/latin competitors have been training/dancing since their teens at the very least! Same goes for ballet dancers. So, they have dance a thousand lifetimes already.

Edie Espinoza (aka the Salsa Freak) says that she discovered salsa when she was in her thirties (around your age, I would guess :wink: ) and she was doing competitions and is still performing some 7-10 years later? Eddie Torres is what mid/late forties? That guy does not look ready to retire anymore than I am ready to become a nun :shock: :lol:

Some dances are less demanding on the body and in a way, whilst you may not be able to do all the neck drops and flips over your partner, because your body has not been trained that way, in a way, I would say that you are particularly lucky now because a) you can flirt, dancewise, as much as you like and no one will think anything of it b) your body wouldn't have the same strains/stresses a similiar aged ballroom/latin dancer would have.

[Ashley]

Anyone have any links to galleries of the Hiltons?

[Sagitta]

Try this http://www.mkhilton.co.uk/

http://www.danceuniverse.co.kr/photo/photogallery.php?go=go

[Sakura]

maybe this is my youthful opinion, eh? :twisted: Someday, we'll find out!

This is definitely a youthful opinion. I'm way stronger and in far better shape than I was at 21.... :wink:

Well... Emm..... I'm in far better shape than I was at 11! Does that count?! :D :lol: :lol: Heh, heh, heh... 8)

Well, as long as there is breath in my body, "juice in the batteries" and the hip joints and knees are still able, I will continue to dance. :banana:

(For the sanity of the people around me, I have to keep dancing anyway, as I get really grumpy otherwise :lol: )


This is why we now have hip and knee replacement surgeries! (Besides for the sake of having shiny stuff in our bodies! =^__^=;; ) Ah, ha! The secret is revealed! The surgeries were invented so we Dancers could keep going, and going, and going, and going....!! :twisted: :twisted: I always *knew* there had to be a good reason! :wink:

Sakura Kitty :kitty:

(PS- I get grumpy too! Heh, proof of why we must always dance! It improves the quality of life of those around us!)

[Pacion]

Umm, thanks Sakura, I think :lol: re the hips/knee operations. I have heard mixed reports on the "success" of such ops so I will try to avoid for the time being :wink:

[Sakura]

Heh, heh... :roll: Well, I know, or at the very least, I'm *very* sure, that I will have to get one, if not both of my knees replaced someday, so for a person like me, it's a very good thing to know that the surgery exists. (I have *insanely* bad knees: as a matter of fact, one of them is *killing* me right now! :evil: It's not fun... :cry: :cry: 'Cause it makes me worry about my ability to dance. :? )

Sakura Kitty :kitty: