Rather, Riddle, a 74-year-old Silicon Valley retiree, drives almost daily from her Union City home to dance the Electric Slide and dozens of line dance routines with other fanatics of a certain age in senior centers from Alameda to Oakland to Berkeley to Stanford.

"I started seeing people line dance in 1995, and I didn't know the steps," Riddle explained during a rare break from a crowded Monday class at the West Oakland Senior Center. "I asked them where they learned to do that and they said Oakland. So I'm here on Monday, East Oakland on Tuesday or sometimes South Berkeley. I go to Stanford sometimes too. It's an excellent way to exercise and I have made so many new friends -- there's 500 of us out there cruisin' -- don't put a "G" on it."

There are quite a few movers and shakers on the West Oakland Senior Center dance floor -- some moving and shaking it more than others, but all having a grand time grooving to funk, oldies but goodies, blues, hip hop, honky-tonk and country music. Riddle uses a cane because she has arthritis, but it doesn't slow her down a step.

Cathy Tate, 65, a retired Oakland school teacher and East Oakland resident, is new to the activity, but she has picked it up like nobody's business since her first visit to the East Oakland Senior Center three weeks ago.

"Listen honey, you need to be in the beginner's class," she recalled some kind soul telling her there. "So I went over to Eastmont Mall. They start with the real basic, the Electric Slide. Everybody was so nice."

Tate, like many others who learned a few routines and wound up hooked, is bringing her own music and newly memorized line dance steps to an annual reunion with her three sisters in Houston this summer.

"I told them we're going to be line dancing," she said. "This year we're going to be slidin.'"

Oakland's line dancers travel a circuit: Monday in West Oakland, Tuesday in East Oakland, Wednesday in West Oakland and North Oakland, Thursday in East Oakland. Of course, there's also South Berkeley on Tuesdays, and Stanford on Thursdays and Saturdays.

It's a non-exclusive club and new members are always welcome. Unlike traditional ballroom dances, where it takes two to tango, so to speak, line dancing is a group affair, a big benefit when you figure more mature women outnumber men, or at least those willing to dance, by a pretty significant margin.

"It's like a disease," said Ray Johnson, 59, as he mopped his brow between songs Monday. "I had all these plans on things to do when I retired, but all I do is this line dancing. Sometimes I go to three a day."

That would be Wednesdays: West Oakland at 10:30 a.m., North Oakland at 1 p.m., Alameda at 4 p.m.

"And in between I go to the gym and lift weights," Johnson said with a laugh.

No wonder the ladies call him "the young kid." He looks and acts like one, dressed in long dark denim shorts, a FUBU jersey and baseball cap, shakin' what God gave him.

The West Oakland Senior Center is sponsoring a four-day Mexican cruise in December, and line dancing is sure to be a big part of the on-board fun.

Doris Johnson, 75, of Berkeley knows what that's like. She's been line dancing for about 20 years at the West Berkeley and South Berkeley senior centers, and includes West Oakland on Mondays. She went on a 21-day cruise to the Panama Canal last year, but made sure she got some line dancing in, just to stay in shape.

"I showed them how to do the steps," she said of her shipmates. "I'm also going on a cruise to Hawaii, and I'm sure I'll dance. My doctor says it's good exercise for me."

It's also good for the brain, says dance instructor Jewelene (Jewel) Lucas, 65, who heard that memorizing dance steps is a good way to stave off Alzheimer's. She tells her students to get moving because she doesn't want to be the only one who remembers who they are.

Lucas warms up the class with a few easy basics, wedding reception staples such as the Electric Slide or Canadian Stroll. Then she eases into some of the 100 or more different line dance routines, some incorporating moves from zydeco or cha-cha-cha, and each with an intricate choreography of steps. Step right, step left, rock back, rock forward, shuffle, hop, toe-heel swivel, heel out, cross over, turn ... whew.

Jennifer King, the West Oakland Senior Center director, said it looks like fun, but acknowledged the seniors can dance circles around her.

"I'm too young ... I can't keep up," she said with a laugh.

Oakland's senior line dancers are gaining quite a reputation. They perform at various festivals and events, the next one being the International Festival at Stanford on May 27, where they'll do their thing in front of 7,000 people, Lucas said.

She and about 50 other dancers strutted their stuff during the half-time show for a women's basketball game at Stanford's Maples Pavilion last season, each earning a high-five from Stanford President John Hennessey, Lucas said.

The seniors love Lucas because she is patient. Some of the dancers who have been around the block a few times help out by taking newbies off to the side to help them learn the steps and gain confidence to join the larger crowd moving in unison on the dance floor.

A line is a line, after all, and although nobody complains, people are supposed to be facing in the same direction.

"I come here and to the other (centers), it's the only way to learn all the dances," said Hope Sheridan, 61, a retired construction worker who helps new dancers with some basic steps. "It was taking too long to learn the steps so I started traveling around. Everybody is so friendly. They treat you just like family."

Lucas retired from Bank of America after 35 years and now she teaches line dancing every day but Friday. Even when she tries to go out dancing on her own, some youngsters invariably need a few pointers, and she can't say no.

"I do enjoy it," she said. "Knowing I have helped somebody makes it all worthwhile. They'll say, 'Oh, Jewel, you changed my life!' When I leave here I know my day was not in vain, they are all smiling and happy."

The Oakland Tribune: Cityside
Leanne McLaughlin, Managing Editor
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