Dance Teacher, 80, Still Moves to the Beat

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By Photo And Text By Angela Peterson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted: Feb. 21, 2010 |(0) Comments

You might say that dance is in Roey Pokrass' genes.

As a child growing up in Chicago she remembers her grandmother dancing and exercising. Grandma Jenny on her father's side danced on the stage, and Grandma Ida would get up in the morning and exercise. Her mother, Elva Stein, was a dancer as well and in 1948 taught body dynamics, a form of breathing and exercising, in Chicago.

"My mother said I was always dancing in my playpen. She had us (she and her younger sister, Barbara Becker) enrolled in ballet, tap and acrobatics as a child," she said.

Stein continued dancing until the age of 103. Her mother died in 2006 at 105.

And Monday on her 80th birthday, Pokrass, of Milwaukee, continues doing what she loves most - dancing.

For more than 30 years she has taught group exercise classes for the Fitness Firm in a style that features a variety of dance movements.

But her age doesn't define her speed. Quite the contrary. It is Pokrass who sets the pace for the class, and slow is not on the dance card for this mother of two and grandmother of five.

"Roey's an excellent teacher," says Claire Marks, 62, of Fox Point, a member of her class for 27 years. "And even though she's older, she still moves so beautifully. You get the beat of the music. It's not just exercise, it's dancing."

But when Pokrass first started teaching in 1978, the dance routines weren't quite as effortless as they appeared on a recent visit to her class at Range Line School in Mequon.

"I was a wreck," she says of that first class in which she subbed for an instructor. "There were about 45 to 50 people in the class. I didn't know how to run the tape machine or do anything electronically. I apologized before and after the class."

Her sincerity and love of dance have endeared her to those like Marks, who follows Pokrass no matter where she teaches in the area.

The Mequon-Thiensville Recreation Department, her third teaching venue, includes her class as part of the senior program. It attracts about 20 regulars. The youngest member in the class is 60 years old, and Pokrass is the elder in the group. She leads the class through at least 10 different 3- to 4-minute exercise/dance segments.

As a group fitness instructor myself for more than 12 years, I came to the class with hopes of bootlegging a few of her steps to take back to my class, but I couldn't keep up as she transitioned from one routine to the next. Just as I thought I had snagged a move, she was on to the next - step brush, right left right left, x-hop back, step left right, vine right left, heel walk up, jazz kick 4, disco strut 8.

And just when her regulars get the routine, the choreography changes every eight weeks. The Fitness Firm provides the new teaching material via DVDs and CDs, and Pokrass passes it along to her followers. To keep herself on track with the wide range of material, she tapes posterboard-size cards on the wall in front of her as she teaches.

"Those are some of the routines in case some of the girls want to look at them, or in case I have a sudden senior moment," she says with a wide smile.

"She's a perfect example of how to age gracefully," says Sue Kimmel, 71, of Mequon, who has been a Roey Rockettes member since 1999. The group gave itself the nickname in honor of Pokrass.

"I promised her when I retired that I would start taking her class," Kimmel said. "It's been a terrific experience. I feel stronger and healthier."

Pokrass may need a little more assistance these days with those cue cards on the wall, but she's far from contemplating her own retirement.

"My daughter, Ellen, said to me this year, 'Mother you know it's time (to slow down),' " Pokrass said.

"And I said I figured I'm going to bop until I drop."