On both occasions,she proved the adage:“Never stop a ballerina from proving a pointe” to be correct.
“At the top of my to-do list post-surgery was ‘I will dance again in some form’,” McAtamney said.
Now every week,just like she did when she was a 10-year-old student of Queensland’s Miss Gene Mogg’s School of Dance,the now 74-year-old laces her ballet shoes and heads to her Silver Swans dance class. She’s one of a growing number of over-55s returning to ballet after abandoning it for decades,or trying it for the first time.
Jill McAtamney as a 10-year-old ballerina,and returning to the barre at 74.Supplied
The is a Royal Academy of Dance-certified class for seniors all over Australia,the United Kingdom and the United States.
Classes are taught by trained classical ballet teachers with an emphasis on teaching not only how to pirouette and plié,but improving mobility,balance,posture,co-ordination,energy levels,and memory for those whose French vocabulary needs a flex as much as their muscles.
When a Silver Swans pilot program launched in 2017,Rachel Sheils,the owner of Melbourne’s Theatre de la Dance in Brighton,jumped at the chance to offer a weekly class. Since then,there has been so much interest she now offers four weekly classes taught by RAD-qualified Rosemary Beagley.
Silver Swans ballet teacher Rosemary Beagley teaching Kay Murphy at Theatre De La Danse in Brighton.Paul Jeffers
“The ladies love it – it is a beautiful group of people – some of whom have significant age-related health issues including one who has dementia,” Sheils said.
For Blackrock ballerina Kay Murphy,78,the Silver Swans have been a true lifesaver.
“I lost my partner 10 years ago and was hospitalised as a circuit breaker because I was in a very dark place as I don’t have much family. In hospital,one of the nurses handed me the local rag and I read about the Silver Swans and as a former ballet dancer joined the class at the age of 68. It has helped enormously,not just with suppleness and my osteoporosis ... I now have a ballet family,” she said.
In 2018-19,Dr Rachel Ward,a RAD-certified ballet teacher and the University of NSW’s director of teaching in its School of Health Sciences,set up a 12-week study to examine the health benefits of ballet for over-50s.
“There were improvements in balance,strength,agility,bone strength and mood,” she said.
Since her study,Ward has taught Silver Swans classes in a studio in Danks Street,in the Sydney suburb of Waterloo to ballerinas aged from their mid-50s to 82.
Silver Swans ballet students L-R:Kay Stevens,Yvonne Troedson and Francis Robie at Theatre De La Danse in Brighton.Paul Jeffers
“This is not tutus,pointe shoes and pink ballet tights ... we’re not aiming to produce the next principal dancer of the Australian Ballet,but I want people to understand the science-based evidence of the health benefits of ballet,” she said.
Ward,along with some 65-year-old dance students,featured in the 2023 ABC television programKeep on Dancing.Next week,some of her Silver Swans dancers will perform at the RAD biennial conference in Sydney from January 19 to 21.
This is not tutus,pointe shoes and pink ballet tights ... we’re not aiming to produce the next principal dancer of the Australian Ballet.
Dr Rachel Ward,Silver Swans teacher
Jill McAtamney,one of Ward’s Sydney Silver Swans,will be one of them.
“It is so great to get back to the barre exercises and dance to beautiful music. I love how the French phrases – like arabesque,jeté and pas de deux – filter back,and learning the routines is good for the memory,” she said.
Sydney Silver Swans,including dancer Justine Butler in pink,and Elizabeth Doley in red.Louise Kennerley
Elizabeth Doley,a civil celebrant,had never had a dance class in her life until she started in one of Ward’s classes.
“I’d always wanted to dance,but only had my first ballet class at the age of 75,” she said.
“We love our Tuesday classes and Rachel ... for me personally,I know it has improved some health conditions,particularly my balance,I always had to hold on to the barre when I started,” she said.
Out with the tutus and tights - the Silver Swans adopt a more relaxed approach to later-life ballet.Paul Jeffers
A ‘cygnet’ at almost 60,and the youngest of Ward’s class,Justine Butler says she prefers ballet to the gym because of the social connections she’s made since restarting a year ago,decades after she first took it up as a child in Canberra.
“It is good for so many things like flexibility,losing weight,and it’s surprising how your heart rate goes up,but there’s also a heartfelt connection between us. We have become friends and often go for coffee after class,” she said.
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