You’re never too old to dance: Laramie woman virtually shuffles into homes across the US

Hully Gully. Paddle turn. K step. Rocking chair. Grapevine. 

Susan Shumway, with her beautifully crisp voice, calls out these moves, commanding more than 130 line dancers in the process. 

In her white boots, red pants, white tasseled shirt and red lipstick, she looks ready for a Saturday night at the dancehall. But Susan is teaching this class for AARP on a Wednesday in late January via Zoom from an office building in Cheyenne.

“Good morning or afternoon everybody, and I am so excited to be here live!” she says into the tiny microphone looping from her ear to her mouth. 

For this session, at least one couple logged on together, but many others were by themselves, ready to dance along in their kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms.

“Just know, you newbies, you beginners, if you haven’t danced before: Even if you don’t get all the steps, you’re still moving,” Susan tells them. 

Susan and her son, Sam Shumway, work together to broadcast songs and her dance moves to these muted masses every week, providing connection and a community for many who’d be hard pressed to access classes like this without them.

Up to the line

Sam isn’t just Susan’s son and technical assistant, but AARP Wyoming’s state director. His branch of AARP started providing virtual fitness classes during the pandemic, and says they’ve been “wildly successful.” 

“We ended up with 90,000 engagements [people signing up for classes] last year,” Sam says. “That put us at number two in the whole country.”

Other virtual classes AARP Wyoming provides include colored pencil drawing, Qigong, meditation, yoga and pilates. They’re free for anyone — members or not — and they help keep seniors connected, Susan adds.

“Because we don’t get out as much, having that community, to me, is really important,” she says.

Still, Susan wasn’t Sam’s first pick to teach the class. 

“She was sort of plan C,” he says, laughing. 

Both of them were a bit reluctant at first because Susan had been a dance and voice teacher for 25 years — including teaching modern jazz dance — but was retired and totally new to line dancing. Still, Sam made the ask.

“Here’s the thing: Everything she does, she does really well,” Sam says. “And so I knew … if she says yes, she’s gonna be amazing. And she’s been amazing.”

Susan decided to do what she could for her son — one of 10 kids she raised to dance, sing and do sports.

“So you know, you love your kids,” she says with a sigh. “And so I said, ‘All right, I’ll try it.’”

Susan is from Utah, but her family lived in Chile and helped run church schools there for five years after her dad received a Fulbright fellowship. That left her fluent in Spanish, which she still uses. 

“I’ll come in and speak a little Spanish to my people and that I’m dancing with, and that’s really fun to do,” she says. 

From there, Susan came back to the U.S. and got a degree in elementary education from Brigham Young University, eventually moving to Laramie where she taught out of her home studio. 

Once she started learning line dance for the AARP, though, Susan was hooked. She’s now been teaching the class out of the Cheyenne office for about two years. 

“I don’t think there’s anybody that I couldn’t teach the basic line dancing steps to,” she says. 

Lining the nation

It’s not just Wyomingites logging on to dance with Susan, though. There are people all around the nation, even up into Canada.

Kirk White Klaphaak in Indiana says he’s been taking the class nearly the whole time it’s been offered.

“When COVID came along, most of the dance groups — well all of the dance groups that I belong to locally — they just shut down,” he says. “And when I heard that this existed for AARP, I jumped in.”

Over Zoom, Klaphaak dances gracefully, moving around with the steps he knows well. Now 73, he’s been dancing since he was 8 — including ballroom dancing, clogging and folk dancing. 

“I don’t want to sound like it’s a cliché, but when I’m dancing, I feel like everything is right with the world,” he says. “It makes me feel alive.”

Klaphaak also noted the importance of live classes, especially for those who don’t make it out of the house as much anymore. 

“Dancing with Susan, dancing with the rest of the people that join us, just feels more like community than watching a tape,” he says. 

Klaphaak doesn’t just love line dancing, though, but how Susan teaches it.

“Susan is far and away one of the best instructors I’ve ever worked with,” he says. “I would feel my life diminished if I wasn’t able to dance with Susan.”

For others, Sam says, they attribute Susan’s class with getting them moving and losing weight. Susan calls line dancing “gentle movement” that anyone can do — but says it can still be rigorous.

“You’re moving a lot,” she says. “You’ll see, I end up really sweaty.”

Beyond that, she explains, remembering the sequence of steps is good for the brain.

Ultimately, Susan believes this kind of class helps those who may not be able to take a dance class any other way.

“A lot of seniors can’t afford to go out and pay for a line dance class,” she says.

And her loyal followers — alongside plenty of beginners — are more than happy to tune in Wednesdays and dance with her for as long as she’s around.

“I’m 72, so I hope I can do it till I’m 82,” she says. “I don’t know, 85? Who knows! I might be dancing at 102 … You’re never too old to dance.”

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