Whose line is it? More than 200 seniors’

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 8:52 a.m.

What: Senior kick line.

When: 11 a.m. Sunday. (Talent shows will continue through 4 p.m.)

Where: Fremont Street Experience.

Tickets: Free.

It might be Las Vegas' longest kick line. And possibly the world's oldest.

More than 200 seniors, ages 50 and older, will don sequins and costumes to form a kick line Sunday designed to surpass all others.

"I think the world record is 600," said Karen Cummins, a 70-year-old dancer with the Las Vegas dance group Silver Sensations. "But that was not just seniors."

This will be. Dancers range in age from 50s to late 80s and represent 12 Las Vegas Valley senior jazz and tap dance clubs.

The "girls," as their instructors call them, will perform a dance number to a song from "Thoroughly Modern Millie," followed by a kick line under the Fremont Street Experience canopy. Talent shows will continue throughout the afternoon on the two Fremont Street Experience stages.

The event joins several of its kind throughout the country in celebration of National Dance Week, today through May 4.

Though groups in 47 states are participating, the Las Vegas dancers will be making an impression, Patricia Goulding, executive director of National Dance Week, said.

"I know of no one right now doing anything like they are doing," Goulding said. "First, they're seniors. They're doing it on a public street and, of course, no one is vying for the longest kick line."

But this is Las Vegas, a city known for its showy displays and growing number of active retirees, many of whom slip back into their tap shoes after years of raising families and dedication to their careers. Some are trying out their moves for the first time.

There are at least 20 senior jazz and tap groups in Southern Nevada. Many perform regularly, often at charitable events.

"Now (in retirement) they can open that door, step in, and do something that the women really want to do," said Patti Ogren, co-founder of Miss Senior Nevada and Timeless Entertainment, who is collaborating with local instructors on Sunday's event.

"I have a dancer who is going to be 88. She will knock your socks off. She's just done all kinds of things in her life."

Local teacher Mary Ann Buzzelli, who choreographed Sunday's dance number, says she's aware of at least 400 senior dancers in Las Vegas.

But, she added, "I'm sure there are more."

Creating a dance that brings 200 together was somewhat challenging, Buzzelli said.

"Not only are there a large number of people but you have a varying level of skills," she said. "We had to come up with a middle ground that was interesting, everyone could do and would be fun."

National Dance Week originated in the early 1950s over a cup of coffee between Bob Stern, then publisher of Dance Magazine, Alfred Terlizzi, president of Capezio/Ballet Makers, Inc. Susan Wershing, publisher of Dance Teacher Now Magazine, helped keep the program alive.

However, Goulding said, "It was a very quiet endeavor until 1969."

In 1991 the United Dance Merchants of America joined the campaign and expanded it from nine delegates in 10 states to what it is now.

The annual event attempts to raise public awareness of the benefits of dance. Roughly 5,000 events were staged during last year's National Dance Week.

Most groups include ballet, tap and jazz. But ethnic and liturgical dancers, dance therapists and dance historians are also participating, Goulding said.

Goulding said she was delighted to know that senior dancers were representing Nevada, explaining, "I think that is an element in dancing that is often missing."