Meet the barefoot-dancing 'wellderlies' of Mount Pearl

Anupbeat bongo drum instrumental plays on a small set of speakers asinstructor Elaine Dunphy begins her Nia class the same way she always does by asking thewomen standing in a circle to take two steps forward into the practice and repeat these words:"Through movement I find health."

The one man in the class being held in the basement of the Park Place Community Centre in Mount Pearl86-year-old George Etheridge gets a special shout-out from the teacher.

"Welcome, George, because it takes a lot of guts to be the only man in the room with a bunch of women," Dunphy saidas the class laughed.

"Nia" is a physical conditioning program that originated in the '80s, combining dance and yoga and other non-impact aerobics.

Etheridgewas therefor the second timewith his sister Elsie Forsey, who turns 99 in March.

"I'm just a young feller," he said. "I came here because you know, for Elsie's sake.You know, she's always been very, very active. The first time she was in hospital was when she was 96," said Etheridge.

Forsey is most definitely the oldest student Dunphy has had since she started teaching Nia in February 2017, and this group holds a special place in her heart.

"Oh my goodness. This class is growing every week. And then Elsie joined us last week at 99 years old with her 86-year-old brother in tow. And it just really hit home to me how important movement is as we age," said Dunphy.

"I call them my 'wellderlies,' and the name has really kind of stuck. I can't take any credit for it, but that's what they are. They're well and they're elderly and I'm going to be one of them when I grow up."

'It's not this pounding of your body'

Dunphy warms up the class by running through a series of gentle movements for the 13 main joints in the body, starting with the feet and moving to the knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers and spine.

It gets her bare- and sock-footedwellderliesready for what's to come a mixture of martial arts movements and dance designed to feed the body, mind and spirit.

"I've been doing Nia and it's tremendous, because it's not this pounding of your body," said Betty Hearn, 73.

"As you age in Newfoundland, most of the time you end up with arthritis, so I find it's a benefit for my hands, for my feet, and you know, your health is in your own hands."

Elsie Forsey is dealing with a bad back, so she does all her moves seated in a chair.

"There are women in different stages of life. I've got women who've lost their husbands," said Dunphy."I've got women who have had their knee replaced and they don't think they're going to be able to move anymore. And Nia gives them an alternative. They can do my class in a chair. They don't have to be able to stand."

Laughter and music

"It gives me renewed energy. Energy I didn't wake up with. The music does it mentally and you're physically active, so I think your whole system enjoys it," said Sheila Fever, who at 69 calls herself a "junior senior."

"I feel like I could tackle the world after this class, or at least my laundry," she joked.

Dunphy also uses props such asflowing veils and kinetic spirals to get people moving, but things get a little rowdier when the parachute comes out.

It's a throwback to childhood gym classes, where a parachute is spread out and lifted up and down by the students, as they run underneath, calling each other out to change places before it settles on their heads.

"I'm doing my exercise without even realizing.I'm still doing squats but we're doing it with the parachute. We're just having fun but we're actually doing the proper moves and that is awesome," said Patricia Pike.

"I'm a wellderlie and proud of it. I'm 72 I'm doing as much as I can to keep myself well, to have fun, exercise my body and exercise my brain."

Spreading joy is Dunphy's mission, and the class yells the word in unison as it comes up in the lyrics one of the songs.

"My practice is my lifestyle now. I have adopted this. It really did change my life. That sounds like super dramatic but it is a movement practice that lets you take your joy into the day," she said.

"It fills me up. When I hear women around the circle connecting and singing the music and I'm watching the smiles on their faces, I just know that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."

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