Don't let the name fool you, the Over 50 Ballroom Dance Club knows how to get down
Honestly, I didn't know you could you dance the foxtrot to "Mustang Sally."
And I definitely didn't know that ballroom dancing could include grass skirts, tropical shirts and Hawaiian-themed leis.
But the Pensacola Over 50 Ballroom Dance Club likes to mix it up, and recently held a special "Luau Dance" at the Sanders Beach?Corinne Jones Resource Center. There, dozens of brightly dressed seniors danced foxtrots, sambas, rumbas, waltzes and the rest of the fancy ballroom dance steps to a variety of music performed by keyboardist and vocalist Thom Oglesby who started out the evening performing "Tiny Bubbles," the 1967 hit by one of Hawaii's biggest stars, Don Ho.
The Pensacola Over 50 Ballroom Dance Club began in the mid-1950s, and now has about 150 members, with the average age being in the mid-70s or so, said club president Patricia Foster, 74.
"It's just a group of seniors who like to dance," Foster said. "We have fun, we make friendships here and it's a great way to stay active. I joined because I love to dance and was tired of dancing in clubs."
Most of the weekly dance events features traditional ballroom dancing with all the accoutrements, including debonair and lovely "dressy attire," as the schedule stresses. Often though, there are theme nights, with a sock hop, hippie night and now a luau night in the books, and a country and western dance, a Halloween dance and various holiday dances in the coming months.
At the luau dance, club members brought various Hawaiian inspired dishes for the dinner break and danced away in their bright and festive attire.
During "Mustang Sally," a few women broke from their partners and started a ballroom-line dance hybrid on the wood floor.
After the song, made famous by Wilson Pickett, the women returned to their tables for a brief rest.
Willie Brooks had a bit of sweat on her neck and face, no doubt due to the twisting and twirling on the dance floor. (Earlier I had asked someone the key to ballroom dancing, and she said, "Showing up.")
Brooks shows up regularly. She's a club board member who is 89 years old.
"I'll turn 90 on Sept. 22," she said. "I've always danced, and just love coming here because of all the good friends I have here. Some of my best friends are here."
Also coming off the dance floor after showing off some smooth moves was 91-year-old Bobbie Kee, another board member.
Her husband, Fletcher Kee, 81, is club vice president.
"I met him here," Bobbie Kee said. "We met here in 2010 and got married in 2011. We had both lost two spouses and found each other here."
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How did it happen? Did he ask her to dance?
"I asked him!" she said emphatically, while a couple of her friends laughed a bit. "I saw him dancing and he was a very good dancer, and someone said 'Bobbie, ask him to dance' and I did."
Bobbie Kee has been a member since 2007, coming the first time, she said, "very reluctantly by myself."
"Everyone was so nice and friendly," she said. "So, I kept coming back."
The club is always accepting new members, with both couples and singles welcomed.
"A lot are couples, but some widows come here to get out," Foster said. "We have a potluck and it's just a real friendly environment. Some come who are already really good dancers, and some come and want to learn."
The weekly sessions begin at 6 p.m., with the first 30 minutes dedicated to dance instruction for those who are learning all the movements required to, if not master, dance the various ballroom dance forms.
For more information, text or call 850-623-5013, or go to the Over 50 Ballroom Dance Club page on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Ballroom Dance Club offers dances lessons, social hub