It's Never Too Late

More Adults Are Doing Plies, Braving the Ice And Taking Classes Once Limited to Kids

Ballet class, horseback riding lessons, ice-skating practice. The list sounds like a regular week of extracurricular activities for an over-programmed fourth-grader. But these days grown-ups are increasingly turning to traditionally kid-centered classes to work out, learn new skills and simply have fun. At Stephen Baranovics's evening adult ballet class at the Washington Ballet in Northwest, 32 mature students stretch, reaching over their heads and pointing their toes as they hold on to a ballet barre.

Outfits range from leotards and ballet skirts to sweat pants. Expertise ranges from beginners to former child starlets. And physical prowess varies widely. But the enthusiasm is universal in the white-painted room with its pianist and traditional wall-length mirror: These students aren't practicing port de bras and plies because their parents want them to or to pack their resumes; they're there because they recognize the physical and psychological benefits -- and challenges -- of organized exercise.

As Baranovics instructs, the dancers dip and swoop across the room, reaching for water bottles and gym towels with a sweaty smile -- at each other, at the teacher and at themselves in the mirror. Instructors often modify exercises for students with physical limitations, says Laura DiSerio, the marketing and communications manager for the Washington Ballet, and allow them to work at their own pace.

Ann Wilson, director of operations at Washington's Joy of Motion Dance Center, says she is keenly aware of the "absolute joy adults experience in their dance classes," and has noted a surge in adult attendance. To make dance as accessible as possible, Joy of Motion offers an Introduction to Dance series. "Our motto is 'Dance is for everyone' -- and we mean it," Wilson says.

"One of the neat things about this adult ballet class," says Baranovics student Emily Holt, 26, "is the mix of people, ages and backgrounds. We occasionally get company members or child prodigies taking extra classes, then there are past and present dancers like myself trying to keep it up, and a few local college students. But we also have an 85-year-old woman and lots of middle-aged women."

Some of the psychological benefits are evident from the students' collective enthusiasm, but Baranovics says ballet also offers more subtle paybacks. For one, it improves posture. "Classical ballet requires a higher center of gravity, which I describe as being next to the heart. And what classical ballet will do is train the body, and six months down the road you are wearing that posture without thinking about it," he says.

It is that same combination of physical and often unexpected psychological benefits that brings grown-ups to Jane Siegler's Reddemeade Equestrian Center in Silver Spring. Kimberly and Richard Brown-Whale joined a Monday morning group of adult riders in an effort to find a low-pressure equestrian environment. They both rode when they were assigned to missionary service in Mozambique, and their son is an exercise rider at the Laurel racetrack. Now they are looking for something different: "Getting out of the urban area in which we live and work, and spending time with horses, is good for our mental health," Richard Brown-Whale says. "You can come to care for a horse companion in a way that you could never feel toward a piece of gym equipment."

At the Monday morning lesson, instructor Melissa Smith asks her five students to warm up their horses, walking, trotting and cantering around the ring. Next, the riders take turns maneuvering their horses through a series of poles laid out on the ground, and after each horse finishes a turn, Smith turns to the other students. "Peanut gallery?" she asks, and all discuss how the exercise went.

This is a fairly slow-paced lesson with no jumping, but "adults know they don't bounce anymore," Smith says. All are helmeted, and two wear body protectors on their chests.

Nancy Schechtman, who rides and teaches at Reddemeade, says that the benefits she gets from horses -- happiness, stress relief and exercise -- outweigh the dangers of riding. "You can't live in fear," she says. "I try to be responsible. I always wear a helmet and receive excellent instruction. The truth is that horses help me to be a very happy, fulfilled person. For that I will accept some risk."

Those sentiments are ones the area's adult skaters know well. On a Wednesday evening this fall, one of the two rinks at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Ballston hosts seven adult lessons at one time. In one corner, students are learning hockey moves, and in another a skater is suspended in a harness to learn to jump on ice safely. Meanwhile, beginners chug steadily forward and back in the center of the ice, helmets firmly in place, as instructors in uniform jackets offer advice.

Nina Yeh of Rosslyn is waiting for her advanced beginner class to start. She skates two to three times a week and says that "you associate skating with a holiday thing, but it's a great way to work out, and you meet a lot of people. I tried going to the gym, but it's so boring. This is more fun."

Tybee Kiejdan of Arlington skated as a child and has now reentered the world of the ice rink. Like Yeh, she has made friends through skating -- "We go out for drinks afterward" -- and also focuses on fitness objectives. "Our goal is to fit our tushes back into our skating dresses from when we were 10," she says.

Adults have different expectations from children, says Beth Lenz, Kettler's general manager, and can become frustrated when they don't progress fast enough. Because of all the adult interest, she has added adult-only public skating sessions to the rink's schedule. The bottom line is, "It should be fun," she says.

Linda Rosenfeld, a Kettler skating student who gives her age as "over 65," skates three to four days a week. When she is on the ice, she wears protective gear, including a football girdle, knee pads and wrist guards.

Skating "makes me feel young," she says. "I don't worry about what hurts. It puts a smile on my face, and my whole spirit is lifted."

Related: Local Resources for Adults

Eliza McGraw is a freelance writer based in the District. Comments:health@washpost.com.