Wentworth Living Center’s Dance Party
By Caroline Boyden
Emma Bergstedt and her classmates bring out the livelihood of elders at the Wentworth Living Community. On Thursday, May 23rd, Emma took a few of her classmates down to the Wentworth Living Community to choreograph a dance and lip sync for some of the residents living there. The dance was in a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s and they wanted to be a part of it. Emma brought Coral, Kennedy, Adam, and Estelle. Before arriving at Wentworth, Emma choreographed a dance by herself. Not only had Emma choreographed a dance, she and her classmates also made costumes for the participants. They made yellow tutus that they all could wear.
They all met at Wentworth at 6 pm. They walked in and met with the activity coordinator and were introduced to the residents participating in the dance. The activity coordinator, Matthew H. had chosen the song “A Bushel and a Peck” from the musical Guys and Dolls. They all sang the song through once. Then Emma started teaching the dance and the rest of the volunteers stood in front to help with the motions so the residents could follow it and learn it. The dance was quite simple, with it being mainly arm and hand movements. The volunteers helped with any questions or confusion. They ran through the dance until the participants felt they were comfortable. This project really stuck close to home for Emma. She said, “It was really cool to see the age gap shorten between us. Some of these women grew up dancing and were even teachers. And here I am being a dance teacher to them. It’s really neat how something so little can bring two people together who wouldn’t have met in the first place.” The women participating were also very grateful for this service, with one of them remarking, “We can’t thank you enough for this. We are so very grateful.”. The dance was then performed on Thursday, May 30th. Emma went back to watch it be performed. There were raffles to raise money and skits to entertain. Not only was the dance a huge hit, but the event was too.