Provider partners with Melbourne Fringe over-60s dance piece

Care Connect partnered with a 2025 Melbourne Fringe Festival dance piece in October for FreeSteps – Swinging Years, a work guided by Taiwanese choreographer Wei-Chia Su and created by dancers aged 60 and over. Local participants joined Su to explore the language of the body — bones, muscles and postures. Its final performance, on 18 October, will be a mass celebration of the beauty and wear accumulated through decades of life.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Melbourne Fringe Festival to bring FreeSteps – Swinging Years to Melbourne this year,” Care Connect CEO Lynda Chalmers said. “Aging well means more than just staying healthy. It’s about staying connected, active, and living a life you love. Swinging Years beautifully encapsulates and celebrates this.”

One of the performers — Deb Batton, in her mid-60s — said she believes the performance highlights the value of coming together as a collective. “What I find really special is getting to dance with people that are my age or older. The experience they bring to the room, the conversations during our lunch break, watching people learn and transform across the process under wise direction has just been the most exciting thing. I feel enriched every moment.”

Some of the FreeSteps – Swinging Years dancers. From left to right: HongHong Guo (Elena), Marylla Powell, Lee Klein and Deb Batton. (Supplied)

Simon Abrahams, Creative Director & CEO of Melbourne Fringe, said FreeSteps – Swinging Years captured a festival ethos of democratising the arts. “Melbourne Fringe believes anyone can be an artist, and this project embodies that beautifully. Its dancers include people performing for the very first time alongside others with decades of experience. That’s what Fringe is all about: celebrating the extraordinary in the everyday.”

Jenny Dykstra, Care Connect Care Manager, said she has seen firsthand how staying active and connected can significantly improve wellbeing in older Australians. “A few of my clients in their seventies and eighties regularly attend dance lessons and exercise classes — and they absolutely love it. For many of them, social activities and hobbies are an important part of their lives.

“They bring joy, purpose and connection, which are all essential to wellbeing as we age. It’s just one of the many reasons why being supported to live independently at home leads to such positive outcomes.” Chalmers added: “We often think of aging in terms of loss or limitation, but performances like this remind us of the incredible strength and wisdom that comes with age.”

Top image caption: Some of the FreeSteps – Swinging Years dancers. From left to right: HongHong Guo (Elena), Marylla Powell, Lee Klein and Deb Batton. (Supplied)