At 95 years young, metro Detroiter Zoltan Karassy is still swing dancing.
Karassy, a resident at Canton’s Waltonwood Carriage Park assisted living facility, began dancing as a high school student after seeing an ad on the side of a bus.
“I like the rhythm,” he said. “I like the people I dance with.”
Karassy loves the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra and more. Dancing helps him relive that music and rekindles memories of good times, joy and love.
His wife, Helen, died 20 years ago, but their dancing exploits were legendary.
“When those two would go out dancing,” said daughter Katrina, “they would stop a crowd.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Karassy’s favorite TV show is ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”
“When it first came out, I started watching it every week,” he said. “I wrote it down: ‘Watch every week, this day and time.’”
On May 8, the “Dancing with the Stars” tour came to Detroit’s Fox Theatre, and Waltonwood arranged for Karassy to have a special, once-in-a-lifetime outing to experience the show.
Frances Farrell, Waltonwood’s life enrichment manager, said the community enjoys planning outings and special events for its residents.
“My job here,” Farrell said “is to do all the programming and all the activities and such. We have a program here, and it’s called Adventure by Waltonwood; it’s a program providing residents the opportunity to experience personalized, meaningful moments. So what we like to do is find out (their) bucket list. What is it they want to do?
“I’ve done a lot of these with (Karassy). It was his love of dancing, and even though he didn’t know what he wanted to do, I knew that he loved ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I know that he goes dancing once a week — and then, I saw that ‘Dancing with the Stars’ was coming live to the Fox Theatre. So I contacted the Fox and said: ‘Hey, I have this gentleman, he’s 95, and our program is about definitely supporting people as they age. Is there any way that maybe he could possible meet some of the dancers or something?’”
The Fox told her it couldn’t arrange meet-and-greets, but suggested she contact “Dancing with the Stars” directly.
“I thought, ‘I’ll never hear from them,’” Farrell said. “They must get thousands of emails. And about eight days later, in comes this thing, and they said, ‘This is so sweet.’ I told them about him, and I said: ‘Is there any way you could get him backstage? I’m limited with my budget as to what I can spend on each of the residents for these things.’ And they said: ‘We’d love to have Zoltan and you come! You have two VIP tickets, and afterwards you get to meet all the dancers.’”
Though Karassy has been a viewer of “DWTS” for years, he refused to select a favorite among the professional dancers on the show.
“They’re all my favorites,” he said. He did, however, note that he was especially excited to meet dancer Emma Slater.
“Honestly, it was nothing short of a dream come true,” he said of the experience. “I was completely blown away by the dancers’ talent; they were incredible! But what made it even more special was being back at the Fox Theatre. It brought back a flood of memories from when I was just a boy, coming to the Fox to see films on the big screen. Being back there for this show felt full circle. I still have to pinch myself to believe I was actually there, but luckily I’ve got the pictures to prove it!
“The whole evening was wonderful; I loved every bit of it. I was just happy to take it all in.”
Inspired by the evening, Karassy will continue dancing, and Farrell attested to his skills on the floor.
“I danced with him,” she said, “and you don’t even have to know how to dance when you’re dancing with a good partner.”
Karassy said he enjoys dancing at Westland’s Joy Manor.
“We’ll change partners, and throw each other around,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s wonderful,” said Farrell, “because (Waltonwood) ladies who are near his age, I didn’t expect any of them to dance. These are people with walkers and things, and the next thing you know, they’re up there, remembering steps and dancing. They don’t even remember, really, but they have the best time.”
“They don’t dance like that anymore,” Karassy said.
“That’s why you go to the ballroom.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Canton man, 95, sees a ‘Dancing with the Stars’ dream come true
Reporting by Duante Beddingfield, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
