Posts Tagged ‘senior’

Dorothy Kloss, the world’s oldest showgirl, beats the odds and the expectations

By Gina McGalliard

In a world in which complaining about their age seems to be a favorite pastime for even the youngest dancers, Dorothy Dale Kloss refutes every stereotype about being too old to dance. She’s 86 and still dancing.

How has Kloss kept her showgirl energy and figure? "I think it's all attitude and keeping yourself moving," she says. (Photo by Ned Redway)

Kloss, a dancer in the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a show featuring performers over age 55, is even in the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest active showgirl (see “FYI,” Dance Studio Life, September 2009). “I think it’s a real honor,” says Kloss. “I’ve had so much publicity, and it’s been just like the good old days, in 1940. So I’ve loved every minute.”

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1923, Kloss started dancing at age 3 as the first pupil of Ford Dancing School. Shortly afterward her family moved to Chicago, which Kloss counts as a blessing because she was able to continue her dance training with some of the best teachers available. There, around age 10, she trained alongside a young Bob Fosse, who lived only a few streets away from her. Fosse learned dance from Kloss alongside Charlie Grass and the two eventually formed The Riff Brothers. Kloss and The Riff Brothers would perform together around town. “I guess it was preparing us for where we really wanted to go,” says Kloss. “Little did I know Bobby was going to go as far as he went.”

Ambitious from the beginning, by age 14 Kloss had saved enough money to enroll for three months at one of the best local dance schools, Merriel Abbott’s. Luckily, just as her money ran out, she won a tap contest and was cast in a number at the Empire Room in the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. In two weeks she was promoted to what she calls “the big show” (Ships Ahoy! she thinks it was), and soon afterward she went on tour with bandleader Eddy Duchin.

But then World War II hit. Kloss performed at numerous bases around the country with the USO, although she was never sent overseas because she had two brothers serving in the armed forces in Europe. “Everybody was very patriotic in those years,” she says.

She also performed with Duchin in his last show at Great Lakes, a Michigan navy base. “[The director] got up to make an announcement, and said, ‘Listen, all you guys and gals out there, this is the last time Eddy Duchin will be directing his band because he will be inducted into the service tonight.’ And the band broke up that night, until after the war,” says Kloss. “And it never really came back. The big bands were gone and television started to come in. That was a great era. I was in it at a great time. We’ll never see it again, I don’t think.”

To her knowledge, Kloss also has the distinction of being the first person to tap dance on TV, on WBKB Chicago in the late 1940s, although it didn’t feel notable because most people didn’t own TV sets then. “She was told that broadcasting on TV had never been done because of the limitations of camera equipment, but WBKB said they were going to try it with a new camera that could pan the studio,” says the Follies’ senior communications manager, Greg Purdy.

“It wasn’t too exciting at the time because they only had one camera and they didn’t know what to do with it,” says Kloss. “I mean, we’re talking about early television. It’s not The Jackie Gleason Show.”

For Kloss, performing has been richly rewarding, and she recommends it as a career to aspiring dancers. “Show business is just a great career. It’s wonderful, if you take it for what it’s worth,” she says. “But the first day in show business is the first day of rejection. And if you can’t take that rejection, don’t get in the business, because it’ll tear you apart. And don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not going to make it, because you know what they said about Fred Astaire: ‘Oh, he can’t dance and he can’t sing.’ ”

When she reached middle age and moved to California, Kloss decided it was time for a career outside of dance. She first worked in an art gallery, being familiar with that world because of her artist father. She later worked at a local chamber of commerce, and following that she worked in guest services for the Queen Mary.

But her return to the stage came 15 years ago when her son Craig transferred to Philadelphia from Los Angeles, where Kloss was living. Kloss had been caring for her grandchild, and his departure left her feeling empty. At the time, she had been teaching dance at the Pasadena Senior Center for six years, and she remembered a student telling her about the Follies and suggesting she audition. So the 71-year-old former dancer sent in a video of herself tap dancing, and an audition followed.

“It’s a great show for people who thought their careers were gone forever,” says Kloss, who performs up to eight shows weekly. It’s quite a workload: rehearsals can last from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with an hour for lunch. In a December performance Kloss appeared in 16 dances, including all the production numbers.

The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies is performed in the historic 1930s Plaza Theatre, which was renovated in the early ’90s when the show was getting started. It runs for 10 months each year and has been seen by more than 3 million people. Its cast of performers ages 56 to 86 performs up to nine shows a week, which include tap and musical theater dancing, plus a showgirl number.

Kloss also makes a special appearance during a monologue by Follies host Riff Markowitz, in which he honors her as the world’s oldest showgirl and she shows off a few tap steps. “Last year we had a great joke in the monologue, because Riff used to say to me, ‘So what do you do? I mean, you’re on all that health food, right?’ ” Kloss says. She would respond, “Don’t be silly. I’m not on health food—I need all the preservatives I can get.”

No special diet or elixir is the secret to her longevity, Kloss says. “I think it’s all attitude and keeping yourself moving.” People often ask if she has good and bad days, and she responds, “Of course I do. I’m normal. I’m like anyone else, only I don’t let my bad days get me down, and I look forward to the next day that’s going to be a good day.”

When she’s not rehearsing or performing, Kloss keeps busy with lunch dates, shopping, theatergoing, and her computer. She also regularly commutes to Los Angeles to take class. “Everybody loves me because I’m 86 and still doing it,” says Kloss. “They went, ‘Oh, my God.’ And I said, ‘Oh, just knock it off.’ ”

She also credits her positive attitude with helping her survive a bout with cancer more than 20 years ago. When the doctor started to describe the worst-case scenario, she stopped him. “I said to him, ‘I don’t want to hear it,’ ” recalls Kloss. “I’m going to be here a long time. You did a good job—I hope you did, I think you did—and so let’s just take it from there. And whatever time I have, I’m going to make the most of it.’ ” Although she was supposed to receive chemotherapy for six weeks, she was declared cancer free after only four.

“People are more worried about dying than living,” says Kloss. “That’s all they talk about, dying. You don’t need that for elderly people. Older people need happiness around them and happy people. There are so many [who are] 70, 80 years old and a lot of them are still doing pretty doggone good.”

As she graces the stage in high heels, fishnet stockings, and full sequined showgirl regalia, anyone watching her would have to say that Kloss is still doing pretty doggone good.

At age 90, this school owner and teacher is still in the classroom teaching many styles of dance and all ages. She takes DLTV on a journey from her early days of dance in the 1920s to her professional performing career and then through her years as a successful teacher. She shares her secrets of longevity in the field and in life. You’ll be motivated by Georgia’s determination to continue teaching for years to come.

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The matriarch of Dance Educators of America, Vicki Sheer has been a leader in the national dance community for decades. DLTV journeys to Virginia to catch up with Vicki at one of her conventions, where she reminisces about the good old days and shares her frank opinions on dance and teaching in the 21st century. Her words vary from thought-provoking to humorous, with stops everywhere in between.

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