Elderly Cubans hit the dance floor to ward off blackout blues
By Anett Rios and Alien Fernandez
HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuban grandmother Ana Mirta Sanchez was not about to let an unexpected blackout in Havana on a weekday morning cramp her style during a regular group dance with 30 or so of her friends and fellow seniors.
"Sure, the power went out, and yes, we're soaked in sweat, but we're having fun," said Sanchez, 87, stepping away from the dance floor in the sultry Caribbean heat.
The program is meant to be a fun and healthy distraction for seniors in a country facing an economic crisis that has left many families short of food and medicine, said Lizt Alfonso, director of the Havana dance company named after him.
"The power went out in the middle of the class," Alfonso said in an interview on the second floor of his studio overlooking the breezy Straits of Florida. "But we didn't stop. Nothing can take away these moments of joy."
Such opportunities are few and far between in Cuba, where a fast-growing senior population has few leisure options beyond the home.
Cuba is the most elderly nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, with over one-quarter of the population aged over 60 according to statistics agency ONEI, thanks to a plummeting birthrate and fast-growing migration, largely to the United States.
The dance program is a breath of fresh air, said Antonio Viart, a 71-year-old Havana resident who shook his hips to the beat.
"We are an increasingly elderly country. We can't turn back the clock, but we can try to maintain our quality of life."
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