Still Groovin: Affirmations for Women in the Second Half of Life - Hardcover

Ruth Beckford toured professionally with the Katherine Dunham African Caribbean Dance Company at age 17. She founded and directed the first city-funded recreational dance program in Oakland, worked with the Oakland Ensemble Theatre, and has written or cowritten three plays and a biography of Katherine Dunham. Now retired, she continues to celebrate life as a life skills counselor and motivational speaker in the Oakland area.

Still groovin'? How can that be?
You thought groovin' ended around forty-three.
At least, that's what the media wanted you to think--
that good times and good looks ended in a blink.

Forty-three candles spelled the sure fate of doom
'cause in the world of glamour and sex there was no room
for women in the second half of life;
their days should be filled with gloom and strife.

Nonsense! Not true, I say,
forty-three candles just light your way
up the path of wisdom and confidence
no longer on that indecision fence.
Taking sure, honest steps of maturity,
say it out loud, "I love being me."

This book has been a lifetime in the making. As a baby in the crib, I moved to the beat, and as soon as I was able to walk, I danced. I just loved to move. Private lessons began when I was three years old, back in 1928. I was the first and only black student at Florelle Batsford's studio in downtown Oakland, California, and I studied all forms of dance, from tap to classical ballet. By eight years of age, I was a paid vaudeville performer. By my teen years, I was well into my career--dancing, giving solo concerts, and winning many competitions. At seventeen, I toured professionally with the famous Katherine Dunham Company, perfecting her unique style of African Caribbean dance. During that time I also continued my studies as the first and only black modern dance student at the University of California at Berkeley and at the Anna Halprin/Welland Lathrop Modern Dance Studio in San Francisco, later becoming a member of the company.