Glen Allen, VA - Mary Dyer Pattillo was in the Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Richmond, VA recent when she heard Middle Eastern music playing.

The clanging of cymbals and the heart-pounding drumbeat was so rhythmic that she slipped off her shoes, and began belly dancing.  Pattillo's 32-year-old grandson, a manager there, looked on with delight as his 82-year-old grandma shook and shimmied to the beat.

That day, Pattillo was asked to join the impromptu Middle Eastern dance, something that happens alot in this area because of her 15-year experience as a belly dancer.  Any given weekend, she can be found at private parties, community events, or nursing homes, demonstrating belly dancing, an aerobic art form known for its fluid arm, and let movements. 

She is the oldest member of The Jewels of the Oasis belly dancing troupe, a 16-member group the performs for benefits and other events.  The troupe has taken the summer off, but will resume dances in August. 

A knee replacement operation in January slowed Pattillo down a bit, but it didn't inhibit her passion for the dance.

"I cound't wait to get back to it."  She said in a telephone interview from her home.

The combination of deep breathing and rhythmic dance steps makes her "feel more alive."  And her doctors are OK with it, as long as she isn't in any pain.

"They tell me to do it as long as I feel like it,"  she said.

One doctor actually watched a performance once and was amazed at the undulations and the way she whirled around on one leg.

He asked, "How do you do that?"  Pattillo said.

To which she replied, "I can't explain it, you just have to feel it."

Patillo is a friend of Nancy McCoy, who will teach this week, and McCoy often puts her forward as a role model.

Pattillo can no longer whirl around on one leg, nor can she do floor work (since the operation).  But she can still dance, and that makes people smile.

"It gives me pleasure and that pleasure is shared anytime I perform,"  she said.

The nursing home visits make the most difference.

"When you see people much younger than you that are suffering, well, that does something to you,"  she said.  "They hold my hands and cry, because they're confined to the bed or have lost legs or other limbs to diabetes and other illnesses."

"My mind and body stays active.  I can't sit still for long.  I love gardening.  My back yard is a dream."

Pattillo was 67 when she started taking belly dancing classes at the Sheva School of Dance in Richmond.  At the time, her second husband, George Dyer, had become ill, but he didn't want his wife to give up her love for dancing.  The couple had taken ballroom dancing together for 15 years, so she decided to find a dance that she could do alone.

"It looked easy," she said.  "But I soon discovered that it wasn't easy."

After 10 minutes of intense dancing, she was thirsty.  And the next morning,, she was sore.  But the more Pattillo danced, the better conditioned her body became.

"It has enriched my life," she said.  "It keeps the blood flowing.  If I just gave up, sat down and crocheted all the time, I wouldn't feel this good.  I watched my Daddy take early retirement and developed Alzheimer's.  I want to stay healthy.  This keeps me healthy."

Her three children weren't sure what to think of the dance at first.  But Pattillo said that her 10 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren think "Nana is cool."

Belly dancing, Pattillo said, kept her from sinking underweight depression when George died in 1994.  When asked if she'd recommend it to twenty or thirty-something's, Pattillo answered, "Definitely.  Start now.  I t's good for the blues, or what ails you.  You never know what life will bring, but this you can control."

The negative stereotypes, which links the dance to stripping, angers her.

"With my body, I certainly wouldn't strip,"  she said.  "That's not what it's about." 

John Pattillo, her husband of two and a half years, is impressed by his wife's energy and ability to inspire others.

"It's a very physical dance," he said.  It's something that requires exercising many of the muscles all at once.  She loves it and she's good at it. 

What inspires her, however, are the gasps of amazement and the standing ovations when audiences discover Pattillo's age.

"Most of them probably wonder, "My God, how is she walking?'  she said with a laugh.  "And when they discovered I'm a newlywed, they think, "How could that poor fool get a husband?"

Pastille said belly dancing has "opened up a whole new world" for her.

"I hear that music, whether I'm washing dishes or whatever, and I start dancing," she added.  "It's a  blast."

At 82, Mary Dyer Pattillo is still shimmying with the best of them.

Open, Sesame:  Dance Key to Life and Vitality

Article written by Charity Apple

Appeared in Burlington Times, News of NC on July 8, 2003