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These RSVP Volunteers are "TOE"-tally Dedicated
(Pete Porter - RSVP)

If you want to keep fit and provide some happy entertainment at some of our local senior centers while you're doing it then the "Toe-Tappers" of Redondo Beach is an organization that you should get involved with. The group is under the tutelage of dance instructor Georgia Bowers who started Toe-Tappers about twelve years ago. Georgia informed me that she takes the group in two tap dance classes a week and that they use these sessions to work on the routines that they execute at the various functions that they go to. Georgia has an extensive background in dance. She was active in the first Civic Light Operas when they started in Los Angeles and remembers being in performances of "Showboat" and "Naughty Marietta" when they were put on by that company. She says that she finally lucked out and got a "very small part" in a Broadway production back East, loving every minute of it. When she came back West she met her first husband and they worked as a hotel dance team for a time. After the family started arriving the two of them opened three dance studios in Northern California and were present at the beginning of the Sacramento Ballet Company, teaching both ballet and tap.

Although the "Toe-Tappers" generally do one show a month, the Anderson Adult Center in Redondo Beach is a regular venue that the group volunteers to attend three or four times a year and I was fortunate to catch their act when they were performing there this week.

Toe-Tapper Sally West told me that she has been performing with this group of ladies on a regular basis for the past four years, either at civic functions or for small groups such as the Anderson Adult Center. Performing regularly around the South Bay, she said that they were originally under the auspices of the Redondo Beach Senior Community Center. Although mostly fulfilling their obligations at various Senior Centers during the year, they had a date that following weekend to appear at the of the Redondo Beach Police Public Safety Fair. Later in October they were also scheduled for a couple of performances at the Knob Hill Health Fair along with volunteering for other work at this function during the day.

Among the many numbers I saw performed was a song and dance number played out to the tune of "My Blue Heaven" with lyrics provided by Bud Despot and with his wife, Marylou, providing the dancing accompaniment. Although Bud said that he doesn't take part in the tap routines, his fine singing voice helps to give a wonderful background to some of the numbers that are performed. Marylou says that they also like to do a lot of ballroom dancing and it was easy to see that they must make a fine couple when they are on the floor together.

I got to talk to another Toe-Tapper by the name of Pat Burschinger. Pat was trained as a teacher for deaf/retarded children and had taught signing for twenty three years after obtaining a Masters Degree in the subject at a school for the hearing impaired back in Washington D.C. She was proud to tell me that she met the one and only Helen Keller while she was there, and that she will always remember how excited Miss Keller was when she found out that Pat's name at the time was Sullivan, the same as the lady that persisted in teaching her to speak.

Ivy Purvis, forty years from Newcastle, England, provided some light comedy as a filler in between numbers while costume changes were being made. Billed as "Ivy the Limey" she elicited some ribald responses from her audience when, sporting an ultra pre-Sampras tennis racquet she inquired "Anyone for tennis"? and, while waiving a golf cub over her head, "Or do you want to play a-round"? She obviously still has some of that classic British North Country music hail routine flowing through her veins!

After several well rehearsed numbers the performance finally came to an end with a number entitled "Java" that included the whole group who left the stage by saying farewell with their stage names:
Betty "Boop" Andrews; Sally "from Tin Pan Ally" West; Sue "from Kalamazoo" Hensel; Marylou "and how do you do" Despot; Ivy "the Limey" Purvis; Patti "from Cincinnati" Burschinger; Joanie "Macaroni" Hayward (the baby of the group at only two months); Pat "and that's that" Ramsey; and the stalwart man of the group, Bud "Weiser" Despot.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable afternoon and much appreciated by myself and the audience at the Adult Center.

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