Dance for the Ages, or DFTA, was founded in 2021 by Shayna Safirstein, a Montclair citizen, and student at the Montclair Kimberley Academy. We started volunteering at First Montclair House, and were there for one year, until expanding and beginning work at MiraVie and Family of caring, both located in Essex County, NJ. Dance for the Ages focuses on improving the life of seniors and assisted living citizens. We aim to give them something to add to their daily routine, and keep their minds fresh and their bodies moving with music, positivity, and love. We later recruited our amazing Co-president, June Martens. A resident of Montclair New Jersey, and a student at Montclair High School. Our main goal is to bring joy and health to NJ’s elderly population, and with the help of mentor Eva Nichols, we continue to spread dance and positivity to our community's seniors.

Our classes without fault always start with 5-10 minutes of chatting about our weeks, or talking about upcoming events. We warm up for 10 minutes with a series of stretches and low impact exercises. Then we get into higher impact exercises that can all be achieved from a sitting or standing position, and can be modified for lower impact options. Then comes the fun part...the dancing! One of our partners will choreograph a short 2 minute dance and teach it to her partner. The pair of instructors will then teach the dances to the students, stopping for questions and practice along the way. After we do the dance a few times, there is a cool down period that consists of stretching and deep breathing. The remaining of the class is spent bonding with the students and sometimes playing the very entertaining game of who has the most doctors appointments next week!

Shayna Safirstein, President and Founder of Dance for the Ages is 15 years old and a student at Montclair Kimberly Academy. Shayna started dancing when she was 3 years old and has has a passion for it ever since. She currently dances at Danceworks in Montclair, NJ.  She teaches 3-5 year olds ballet as well. Shayna worked with her mentor, Eva Nichols to bring DFTA to life and she continues to look for ways to improve her company and expand it through Northern New Jersey. 

June Martens, Co-President of DFTA is 14 years old, and has been dancing since she was 3 years old. Shayna and June are lifelong friends who dance together at Danceworks, and June also teaches young girls ballet around the age of 6. She  is an avid traveller, and spent 2 years living in Amsterdam, but now attends Glenfield Middle School while playing piano and volleyball in her spare time. She loves to work with the students and is constantly bringing new ideas to the company, exited to help create this organization.