As of: February 4, 2024, 9:00 a.m
By: Michaele Heske
Comments
Press
Split
Dancing like a scoundrel: Renate Sellmeier (l.) and Rosemarie Froneberg.
© Michaele Heske
40 couples enjoy music and movement at the city's senior carnival in Jakobmayer.
Dorfen
– May I ask?
A good 40 couples floated across the parquet in disguise at the senior dance on Thursday and had a lot of fun at the carnival event in the Jakobmayer Hall.
“We older people are often no longer noticed,” says Rosemarie Froneberg.
Not a nice feeling - that's why dance events where you meet old acquaintances are so important for her generation, says the 70-year-old Wartenberger.
“There isn't that much on offer for us seniors anymore.” Froneberg goes like an oriental princess: “I bought the dress years ago in Tunisia,” she says.
Underneath the black wig, her hair is blonde: “It’s carnival – it takes a good disguise.”
Even if the problem is a little annoying, Froneberg is enthusiastically dancing with her oldest friend Renate Sellmeier from Lengdorf.
“We’ve known each other since we started school,” the two lively ladies remember of over 60 years together.
Other good friends are also sitting at the table: from Velden, Hohenpolding and Dorfen, all of whom Sellmeier has mobilized.
People chat and laugh over coffee and donuts.
They are only oldies in terms of years.
Socializing is good.
Dancing is healthy and promotes endurance, coordination and balance.
Usually a few dances are enough and the old suppleness returns.
The main thing is to keep moving, says Martina Obermeier, responsible for social affairs and senior citizens in the city administration.
“The joy is visible,” says the organizer.
Obermaier himself is retiring in April.
Will she also take part in the senior dance later?
“I still have a bit of time - our guests are all significantly older, many even around 80 years old.”
On October 4, 2002, the first senior dance took place in the next room in the Dorfener Stuben.
Three weeks later there was a new edition, which was moved to the Streibl Hall due to high demand - the events were initiated by the senior speaker at the time, Doris Minet.
This year there are four more dance afternoons in the Jakobmayer Hall.
“It always depends on the response,” explains Obermaier.
Georg Niederer, known as “The Daredevil”, creates the atmosphere.
The spectrum of dances is extensive: Waltz, Slowfox and Quickstep, Samba, Rumba and ChaChaCha.
Dieter and Isolde Fischer come from Burghausen: “We never miss a dance event in the area, we are happy to drive 60 kilometers to do so,” they say.
They met at dance school over 60 years ago and have been floating through life together ever since.
Your favorite dance?
Clearly: “Viennese Waltz.”
Elisabeth Wimmer likes all dance steps equally; she is dressed as a bee.
Ruppert Kurz from Grüntegernbach also comes because of the dancing.
He is dressed rather simply with a bright green shirt.
Kurz rarely skips the senior dance: “Only when something important comes up, when I have to look after the grandchildren.”
The Narhalla march sounds.
The hereditary prince couple of the KG Dorfen move in: Nina-Marie “from the fast stirrup”, and Prince Darren, “the 1st of the 2nd dance generation”, as well as the guards perform real tricks on the dance floor.
“When the children perform their dances, it is always very touching,” says Obermaier.
The applause is frenetic.
Then the hat goes through the hall.
“Associations like the KG are not seen at fundraising events,” says Obermaier.
They are an important building block in youth work.
“They start dancing at a very young age.