It?s never too late to be a dancer ? not even when you?ve reached retirement age. That?s the philosophy behind the Seniors Learning Centre salsa class at the Bermuda College. sat in on a few classes at the Seniors Learning Centre to find out what they have to offer.

?And one, and two, and three,? shouted instructor Ricky Spence on a cold, blustery February afternoon. ?That?s it, that?s it. Smile, smile smile!? All dancers were dressed in red and black outfits. Their high heels clacked against the dance room floor.

This is the second year he has taught salsa dancing at the Seniors Learning Centre at the Bermuda College. He also teaches salsa dancing to people of all ages in the evenings at his barber shop on the North Shore.

?It is quite an experience teaching the seniors,? said Mr. Spence. ?It is a very good experience. I think that salsa is good for the seniors because it allows them to move and get their bodies to express themselves a little more. They get some exercise.?

Twenty students formed two lines on either side of the room and then danced towards each other. A catchy salsa tune played in the background.

Okay, again from the top,? Mr. Spence called. He was assisted by his niece, Greashena Spence.

?Okay ladies, smile and be graceful and be sexy,? Miss Spence told the dancers. Dutifully, the dancers all put on their best smiles.

?Most of them have talent and can definitely dance,? said Mr. Spence. ?They are easy to teach. They catch on very fast. I am really proud of them.?

Gaynette Hayward decided to take salsa classes to be closer to her daughter who is a salsa dancer.

?This is the second time I have taken the class,? said Mrs. Hayward between dance routines. ?I enjoyed the first class so much that I wanted to take it again. Because of my daughter, I decided I had to learn more. Now we have something in common.?

Dance partners Gwen Joell and Lee Mello were also taking the class for the second time. ?It?s lots of fun,? said Mrs. Mello.

The salsa class is just one of many different classes offered by the Seniors Learning Centre. There is also belly dancing, a forum, a current affairs class, a health forum, foreign languages and exercise classes.

?It is a common thing among seniors, that when they retire, they sit at home and watch television all day,? said Seniors Learning Centre president Wallace Pitman. ?We have felt, right from the beginning, that if you give the seniors something to exercise their minds and bodies they will live a better life. Our courses are designed just to do that.

?We have the salsa class. We have exercise classes that are basically a senior type of aerobics. It is nothing really strenuous. A lot of the exercise they do they can do sitting on a chair if they can?t get down on the floor, and some of them can?t.

?We even have one lady in the exercise class who is in a wheel chair. This helps her and gives her something to do.?

Mr. Pitman said he got roped into working with the Seniors Learning Centre a couple of years ago, through his wife Sarah. ?It is my wife?s fault,? he said cheerfully. ?She belonged to the Seniors Learning Centre. She invited me to the annual Christmas party. I put my name down on a piece of paper, and before I knew it, I was a volunteer.

?I have enjoyed every moment of this organisation. It is a great organisation. I have worked very hard with it, and will continue to do so as long as I can.?

One noticeable thing about the classes at the Seniors Learning Centre was that they were dominated by women. Women had to lead and follow in the salsa class because there were no men. In a forum class there were only three men out of thirty participants.

?Men are invited, but we don?t seem to be able to get as many men,? said Mr. Pitman. ?More men come to the Thursday world affairs class. Even so, it is nowhere near the same percentage of women. Men tend to be interested in that because they want to be able to get up and speak their minds.?

The Thursday current affairs class is a popular one. In previous years it was moderated by Kit Astwood, but now Sir John Swan has taken over the job.

?Sir John is a person who has that ability to get people talking,? said Mr. Pitman. ?We have 80 people in that class. John will talk about something that is going on here in Bermuda or in the world. In one class they were talking about what was going on in China. He stays away from political subjects.

?Last time he just opened up the floor and let the participants choose their own subject. I wasn?t sure how that was going to go, but it went really well and we had a good discussion.?

Class sizes vary from ten students to 80 in some cases.

?The health class we just finished had fifty students n that class,? said Seniors Learning Centre executive director. ?In that class we invited people from the medical field to come over and talk about high blood pressure and all the things that seniors are concerned about.

?We even had a lady from the health store bring all of her vitamins and supplements. The seniors seemed to enjoy that. What I like are the foreign languages. We have German, French and Spanish. We have two French classes. They really seem to enjoy that. We have jewellery making.?

Mr. Pitman said that seniors are often more attentive than much younger students, because they are genuinely interested in the topic.

?As an ex teacher it is a joy to work with the seniors,? said Mrs. Trott. ?You can take that for what it is worth.?

?This is our sixteenth year since we started,? said Mrs. Trott. ?The Seniors Learning Centre was actually started by the college. It started off with 23 members, and they had four courses the first semester.

?Now we are running an average of thirty to 35 courses in the spring and fall. In the summertime we basically have maybe half a dozen exercise classes running.?

In addition to classes, the Seniors Learning Centre also organises outings to restaurants or miniature golf.

They also have a brown bag lunch event where someone in the community allows them to come and sit on their lawn and look at the view. Normally, these views would not be accessible to the general public.

Prices for the classes are reasonable. It costs $20 to join the Seniors Learning Centre, and then membership is $15 each year. The four session forum class, for example, costs $40 and includes lunch, tea and cookies.

?We have had some people come in their nineties,? said Mr. Pitman. ?We have had to say once you reach ninety it?s free. We need to be able to cover ourselves because we are self-supporting. The college do not provide us with any funds.

?The college provides us with our office, telephone, electricity and classroom space. The only thing we have to pay to the college in terms of classrooms is the computer rent. We pay a small amount for computer time. They do not use our classrooms except in the summer.?

The money made from the classes is funnelled back into the programmes.

For more information about the Seniors Learning Centre telephone 239-4029.