EPISODE 52: Dancing Your Way to Healthy Aging - Grants Pass Dance Club

Did you know that dancing could be one of the best things you can do for your health as you age? In this episode, Jamie sits down with Steve Porter, President of the Grants Pass Dance Club, to talk about how dancing offers seniors a powerful combination of physical activity, mental stimulation, and social connection — all in one afternoon.

Steve shares how the club got started, what to expect when you walk through the door for the first time, and why you absolutely do not need a partner to participate. From line dancing to waltzes to an 18-piece big band swing orchestra, there is something for everyone at the Josephine County Fairgrounds — and membership is just $5 a year.

Whether you've lost a spouse, you're looking for new friends, or you just want to get moving in a fun and welcoming environment, the Grants Pass Dance Club might be exactly what the doctor ordered.

📍 Josephine County Fairgrounds, Dance Hall Building — 1405 Fairgrounds Road, Grants Pass
 🌐 grantspassdanceclub.com
 📘 Facebook: Grants Pass Dance Club

At Team Senior™, our mission is to guide you and support you through the maze of Southern Oregon Long-Term Care.

📞 For Team Senior resources, call: 541-295-8230

Or visit our website for more information: https://www.teamsenior.org/

Transcript

Episode 52: Dancing Your Way to Healthy Aging - Grants Pass Dance Club

Host: Jamie Callahan
Guest: Steve Porter, President, Grants Pass Dance Club

JAMIE CALLAHAN: Hi, this is Jamie Callahan with the Team Senior Podcast. Our goal is to simplify aging. Society grooms us to plan for retirement, but what about life beyond retirement, where the rubber meets the road? Perhaps you've had a stroke, or you've been diagnosed with cancer, or maybe you're forgetting things and now you have dementia. That's our area of expertise, and we are here to share our insight.

And now, the Team Senior Podcast.

Hi, this is Jamie Callahan, and I am in the studio today with Steve Porter. Steve is with the Grants Pass Dance Club, and I'm going to give him a chance to introduce himself and tell you a little bit about the club.

STEVE PORTER: Okay. Glad to be here. Thank you for having me. My name is Steve Porter. I've been in Grants Pass for about 36 years. A lot of people might know me from owning Siskiyou Communications or Siskiyou Cellular. I'm also a local musician and get around town and do all sorts of things so I can get myself in the middle of it and make things better on each side.

JAMIE: That's wonderful. How did you personally get involved with the dance club?

STEVE: Back in the days of rock and roll when I was growing up, I enjoyed dancing, but that was with, at each other. When new country came, I went to a place called The Saddle Rack, and I found people were dancing with each other, and I thought, "This is the ticket," because I was young and single. Matter of fact, I met my wife there. For a year, she thought my name was Jim. It's Steve. She wasn't interested, but it worked out. So dance became a part of my life at that point. I am a musician, so I can appreciate other people dancing behind music and what music brings to all the rest of us. Having retired some years back, I thought this would be a wonderful transition from my early days to my later days.

JAMIE: I get that. I get that. And I know people love dancing at all ages, but I happen to know that at the Grants Pass Dance Club, many of the folks are retired, and they're looking to get out and meet people. How would you say that dancing helps people with aging?

STEVE: Let's address the fact that, yes, we're afternoons, so we are retirees, seniors, and that's part of the problem. There's a limited amount of people who are interested or aware, and that's partly why I'm here, or able. It offers so much. I like to offer the word vitality—mentally, physically, emotionally. Mentally, obviously, you're getting out of the house. You've convinced yourself to do something. You feel better about it afterwards. You're remembering songs. You're with other people. Mentally, physically, emotionally. Emotionally, of course, remembering the songs, being involved, being with others who are there for a common interest in a social atmosphere. We've been doing this since the '60s down there at the dance club when round dances and square dances were popular. It doesn't seem to be as popular anymore. Obviously, a lot of things aren't as popular anymore in a social atmosphere, and we would really like to offer all of this as an alternative.

JAMIE: I love that. So I know that even beyond the physical aspect of dancing, music in itself just makes people feel good.

STEVE: Absolutely. It's a universal thing, and when we get down the line a little bit, I'll talk about what we offer as music.

JAMIE: I love that. So when people think about healthy aging, dance isn't always the first thing that comes to mind, but why should it be?

STEVE: Consider this. If someone is conscious enough to want to go to the gym and stay active in whatever sport there might be, dancing obviously is a physical thing. We have line dancing in the morning where that is an alternative to, say, going to the gym. But we get 30, 40 ladies in, in three or four rows of 10 each, doing all that stuff for an hour and a half.

JAMIE: I bet.

STEVE: So the physical aspect is genuine. I'll break a sweat when we get going. It's not just— I want to break the stigma of the retirees. Go back to that. Yes, we're retirees, seniors, but it's not just necessarily what people might envision, so slow on the floor and barely moving. We mix it up a lot. And if we get additional people who tend to mix it up a lot, the more the merrier. It's not as corny perhaps as you might think.

JAMIE: I know that. I know that. I've actually been able to watch some of your classes, and I know that it's not just the physical piece of it. It's mental health, it's confidence, it's overall wellbeing.

STEVE: Confidence included, absolutely.

JAMIE: Absolutely.

STEVE: And you don't have to achieve a lot to gain some confidence. The dance steps could be simple. If you could do slow, quick, slow, quick, you're on your way. We'll take you to the floor.

JAMIE: I'm sure. So let's talk about dancing together. So I know that you have lots of folks that come, but they don't have to come with someone. They can come by themselves, right?

STEVE: Absolutely. We emphasize that we are here for you, no partner necessary. There are singles there, and even those—our couples would take it upon themselves to make the gesture to offer to take you to the dance floor and help you learn whatever you might wish to learn, basic steps of a lot of different styles of music. It's part of my job as the president to make everybody feel welcome, and I—give me four minutes, I'll make you look like you're on TV. But no, we are there for you. Singles can come, and that's another aspect of singles. They may have lost their spouse. Now what? Another group of friends, and we're warm and welcoming, of primarily that generation where that was appropriate and natural and expected.

JAMIE: Sure. Yeah. I would imagine that through the dance club, there's been a lot of friendships and community that's formed even just on the dance floor.

STEVE: Absolutely. Three of them have gotten married in my tenure.

JAMIE: Oh my gosh. About five years now. That's amazing. I love that. So what do you do to welcome beginners? Let's say somebody's nervous about coming for the first time, but they're going to show up and they're going to walk through that door. How do you greet them?

STEVE: First, realize that it's not just about dancing. We invite people just to come and sit and maybe watch to develop a desire and listen to the beautiful music that, again, we'll get back to what we offer for music. But sure, we have a desk set up at the door where there is a fee—we'll talk about that—and I will make it a point to come up to the door and welcome anybody. "How did you hear about it," et cetera, et cetera. Show them there's plenty to sit, and just encourage them and thank them for coming.

JAMIE: Sure. Yeah. So you've mentioned music a couple of times. What is the music that is played there?

STEVE: We offer three different musician groups. First off—and we'll talk a little bit about some hours later, but I don't want to throw out details. These are concepts. These are feelings. We have a guy named Jay Barely. He plays three times a month on Fridays. He is a lifer musician, spent 17 years in Nashville, knows everybody, been on the Grand Ole Opry stage, lived three blocks behind that. He has retired as well, lives in Cave Junction. It is his life's continued desire to play music for us, and he's really good.

JAMIE: So you have live music. It's not a DJ or coming out of a boombox.

STEVE: It's always live music, and that needs to be emphasized. What a specialty that is. Absolutely. It's a rare thing anymore. So Jay, he'll take requests and play all this wonderful music. And then on the second Friday of every month, we have Tim and Michelle. They are highly accomplished as well. They're out of the San Francisco Bay Area. They've played as groups for Stanford University alumni parties. They're highly acclaimed musicians, and they love to come as the husband-and-wife team and just swing it and sing it. It's wonderful.

JAMIE: I love it.

STEVE: Then the best—on the second and fourth Mondays of the month, we have an 18-piece big band swing orchestra. The Rogue Gold Jazz Band. Don't let the word jazz fool you. These are songs you will remember of the past. An 18-piece beautiful orchestra. Can you imagine dancing a waltz to "Moon River"? They do a Beach Boys medley. On and on, memories, songs you'll remember, and some that are current to put to this form. And it's a sight and an earful to behold. Imagine dancing on the dance floor, a big dance floor, to an 18-piece big band.

JAMIE: Yeah, that's so awesome. That's so awesome. Okay, so we've established that you have phenomenal music.

STEVE: Absolutely.

JAMIE: And we've established that people come, they make friends, they love to dance. How does someone get involved? What is the expense?

STEVE: If you wish to join our club, it's $5 for the year. Hardly a financial impediment.

JAMIE: Wow.

STEVE: And then that entitles you to come and join us for $5 a time. And if you're not a member, it's $7. So it's low cost, but that—

JAMIE: It's still very affordable.

STEVE: Oh, absolutely. That's amazing. That helps us cover the cost for the musicians. Back to the fairgrounds—we'll talk about where it is. At the fairgrounds, the dance hall, we have liability insurance, and we have a raffle in the middle, and people do that, 50/50. We break even all the time. We're doing fine financially, thanks to the believers and attendees.

JAMIE: How many people usually come?

STEVE: About 50. Our Fridays are often 50, sometimes 45. The big band on Mondays doesn't seem to be the draw that we would hope, and we do not understand why. We get 30, 40, occasionally 50, but we'd like to see that ramp up a lot. We would like to see all of them ramp up. We've got a lot of space and a lot of purpose.

JAMIE: Sure. I know you guys are doing great things, and we hope to be able to help you promote this. When people come, first time, tenth time, whatever, what is the most common feedback that you hear from members?

STEVE: That they've really enjoyed being a part of a social atmosphere. It's been so long. COVID did not help anything.

JAMIE: I know. COVID did not help anything. That's so true.

STEVE: So if we can break the mold of getting back out and realizing it's okay to be home, but okay is just okay—we want to offer back what traditional camaraderie, social atmosphere. Music is universal. The feedback is, "We're glad we heard about it. Why didn't we know about it sooner?" We've been on the radio. We have flyers all over town. We've held two evening dances with 110 people, hoping they'd come back. That wasn't typically retirees—it's the working class. This is important for me to do this for you because this is leaning towards specifically the benefit of seniors, not only because of the hour, but because of the purpose.

JAMIE: Sure, absolutely. We want to keep folks healthy as long as possible. And—

STEVE: This goes a long ways.

JAMIE: I know it does. So Steve, if someone's listening and they want to learn more, attend a dance, get involved, how do they reach out to you?

STEVE: We have a website, grantspassdanceclub.com, but more effective is Facebook. Now, a lot of people are opposed or don't know much about Facebook, but if you want to just see us there, go to Facebook and type it in, Grants Pass Dance Club. We keep our calendars current on that. The web is harder to do. We keep our calendars posted. We show pictures. We talk about events. Grantspassdanceclub.com or Facebook, Grants Pass Dance Club.

JAMIE: That's great. And this is always held at the Josephine County Fairgrounds in Grants Pass.

STEVE: Correct. It's in the dance hall building, and the fairgrounds is located just west of town on Rogue River Highway, 1405 Fairgrounds Road. But everybody will know where JoCo Fairgrounds is, the dance hall building. And if you drive in, they say, "What building is it?" It's the one with all the cars, because nothing else is going on in the afternoons.

JAMIE: I love that. I love that. Steve, thank you so much for coming today. I'm really excited and honored to be able to promote what you're doing. I know that you are very vested in this program, and I have heard nothing but positive feedback about it.

STEVE: Personally, I'm very pleased and honored to be able to be a part of this. Again, it's been my ongoing transition to be titled as one of the same seniors and retirees, and I'm proud to get this far and offer this in the best of my ability. It's such a worthy cause.

JAMIE: I know it is. I know it is. Thank you so much, and have a wonderful day.

STEVE: Thank you very much for having me. Bye-bye.

JAMIE: Thank you for listening to the Team Senior Podcast. We're here every week sharing new and relevant information. Remember that we're just a phone call away. Team Senior can be reached at 541-295-8230. Again, 541-295-8230. Until next time, this is Jamie Callahan.

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