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Seniors Learn to Belly Dance at a Gramercy Center in Limbo

By Amy Zimmer | March 17, 2011 4:58pm | Updated on March 18, 2011 7:26am

By Amy Zimmer

DNAinfo News Editor

GRAMERCY — Vivian Smith tied a shimmering belt around her waist, ready to shake her hips and sway her arms for her Wednesday morning belly dancing class.

"This is so much fun. It gets me out of bed. It gets me to exercise," said Smith, a former clinical social worker who lives nearby in Peter Cooper Village.

Smith is 90 years old, and the belly dancing class she attends isn't like classes one might see at a high-end gym or boutique dance studio. It's not only the price — free with a suggested $2 donation. It's the demographic: the white haired set.

Zoe Kennedy — who at 67 is herself a senior — has built a following in the three years she's been teaching at the Stein Senior Center, well-known across the city as a happening place for older New Yorkers.

"I love it here. I'm coming all the way from the Bronx because I love Zoe's class and the center," said Zadie Salmon, a retired nurse.

The Stein Senior Center draws 250 people a day to its art, music, exercise and other activities, such as its popular Shakespeare and opera courses, said executive director Jane Barry. An average of 96 to 120 people eat lunch there daily, paying the suggested $2 if they can.

Stein's future, however, is in limbo.

It's been threatened because of budget cuts, one of 105 city senior centers on the chopping block.

Barry is hopeful that the doomsday plan won't go through, as Albany lawmakers are currently hashing out ways to stop a proposal to strip $36 million in funding for the centers, after uncovering $155 million not projected in the original executive budget.

"Our goal is to restore the money," said Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, who has been working with Stein, which sits in his district. "It's always packed," he said of the center.

But even if this funding is restored, Stein faces another dilemma.

It is in the process of negotiating a new lease and will need between $750,000 and $1 million to renovate the space, Barry said.

She is worried that in these belt-tightening times, there will be no city capital funds to help with their move.

Stein is being forced from its current space on East 24th Street at First Avenue to make way for a mental health clinic for disabled patients.

It will have a temporary home at the East End Temple on 17th Street for three to six months, starting July 1. Barry is then hoping the center can move into a renovated space in the Uniformed Firefighter's Association building at 204 East 23rd St., between Second and Third avenues.

She is meeting with elected officials on Friday to discuss the center's fate.

"I would hate it to be closed," said Gloria Otto, a registered nurse who attends the belly dancing class. "It's like a second family."

She spends more time at the center than with her own relatives, she said.

"I'm supposed to be retired, but I'm always here and always busy," Otto, 76, said. "My family needs to make an appointment to see me. "

The belly dancing isn't for everyone, of course.

"If I did that I'd need a chiropractor," said Marcia Lotto, who was working in the computer lab that shares a room with the dance class.

Lotto shopped around at other senior centers.

"I chose to come here more often because there's a lot of things going on and the people don't look half dead," she said. "The most important thing here — you get companionship."