V o lume T h i rt y S even , N umber 9
N ovember /D ecember 2023
Beaumont Halloween Dance Party - A Howling Success! Article by David Randolph. Photos by Linda Madara.
On the last Friday in October, as darkness set in, our extraordinary Beaumont Music Room became an amateur discotheque, complete with blacklight, colored lights revolving over our ceiling murals, resident dancers with streamers and rhythm sticks, and a star appearance by Pelle, The Dancing Dog!
1st row: Lucia Spaventa, Dorothy Clapham, Helen Vinick, David Randolph, 2nd row: Dave Prewitt, Margaret Balamuth
else but at a Beaumont party can one dance with a beautiful, ghostly white Bichon Frise, and not draw alarmed looks and stares?
The beauty of this Beaumont dance tradition is that one didn’t have to dance at all to have fun and celebrate with new old friends. My celebrated dance partner, Bunny Solomon, whirled colored streamers in time with the raucous music, while on the other side of the Music Room, Dilip Das and Claude deBotton banged on rhythm sticks in time to classics like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.
Richard Lange directing the dancers with a streamer.
Our Halloween maître-d' and Master of Ceremonies, Richard Lange, began the dance with a solo rendering of scary organ music played on our magnificent, century-old organ, then switched to every Halloween themed song imaginable from the 1950’s forward, which he had recorded and mastered onto an original tape. One of our 40 resident guests remarked that it just made them want to shine a flashlight under their chin, look up at the skylights, and howl towards the rising full moon! As for myself, I did howl, but only during my own silly dance with half a dozen other like-minded dancers including Helen Vinick and Dottie Clapham, while leaping about to Warren Zevon’s 1978 classic - “Werewolves of London”. Where
This entirely original, residentled Beaumont musical tradition will continue this winter, with participants calling for a Can-Can Dance - with cans of food and other requested necessities being collected for ElderNet of Lower Merion, a local social services organization of which Beaumont is a proud corporate sponsor.
Barbara Pottish and Bunny Solomon with rhythm sticks.
1
Party on Beaumont!