Family stays in step with dance tradition

Anita Creamer
Sacramento Bee
March 28, 201

Like grandmother, like granddaughter.

Wearing a pretty black dress and silver derby, 73-year-old Norma Makela will prance onto the basketball court April 11 at halftime of the Sacramento Kings home game as part of a 34-person senior jazz dance troupe from Sun City Lincoln Hills.

Observing from the sidelines, one member of the Sacramento Kings Dance Team plans to watch Makela with particular interest: her granddaughter.

“I can’t wait to see her perform at the game,” said Michelle Makela, 19, a Sierra College student who joined the Kings dancers this season. “I think it’ll be so incredible and so fun. It’s wonderful to see how hard my grandma is working.”

Her grandmother, as it turns out, was tap dancing in shows and parades in Redwood City long before Michelle came along. But not until her husband, Carl, died at 66 in 2002 did Norma Makela return to dance lessons.

She didn’t really expect to perform. She just wanted to stay healthy and active.

“The exercise is good for the body and the brain,” said Makela, who retired from Hewlett Packard in 2000. “We have ladies in their 80s dancing, too. They bring us a lot of inspiration.

“Even though you’re in the senior age group, you can still have quality of life.”

Numerous studies through the years have supported her contention that moderate cardiovascular exercise – whether walking, biking or dancing – amounts to a fountain of youth for older adults, helping reduce their likelihood of developing hypertension, stroke, heart problems and Alzheimer’s disease.

To put it another way, a sedentary lifestyle kills.

With a schedule of rehearsals and dance classes six days a week, no one could accuse Norma Makela of being sedentary.

“I’m crazy busy,” she said. “And it’s hard. When you perform, you’re supposed to hold your hand just so, but you’ve got arthritis. Or you’re supposed to bend down, but your knees are bad.

“It’s a challenge. As you get older, the body doesn’t move the way it used to.”

But she loves her newfound life as a dancer so much that she’s appearing in a Sun City Lincoln Hills talent show early in April before the Kings performance.

Her dance teacher, Alyson Meador, has taught seniors for the past decade. But she was also one of Michelle Makela’s early tap-dancing coaches.

“Michelle is a little fighter, and so is her grandmother,” said Meador. “Norma works at things. She doesn’t give up. She’s family-oriented, and she takes care of people. She doesn’t mope through life. She stays active.”

For recent widows, Meador says, dance classes can provide a particular release.

“You can’t be thinking about a million other things in dance class,” she said. “You have to concentrate on this. For a woman processing the loss of her husband, it’s a good distraction. And they like the adrenaline of learning.”

And sometimes, the adrenaline of performing.

When Makela modestly says she hopes not to embarrass herself when her troupe dances at the Kings game, her granddaughter rushes to defend her. Makela, after all, has attended more of Michelle’s dance performances than either of them can remember.

“She’s very good,” said Michelle Makela. “It’s nice for me to go to her performances now and see my grandma on stage. She has a nice smile and a nice dance presence.”

And a nice granddaughter.