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Beach resident kicks up her heels
By JEANNIE CARLSON
| Article published on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 |
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| Joanne Kupsis, 64, of North Redington Beach stays busy dancing with the Jeanne Lynn Dancers and the Grandmother Rockettes. |
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NORTH REDINGTON BEACH – When Joanne Kupsis of North Redington Beach chose marriage over a promising dance career nearly 45 years ago in Chicago, she still kept her tap shoes.
In 2003, she dusted off those very same taps and began taking classes at the Jeanne Lynn Dance Studios in St. Petersburg. A year later Kupsis began dancing with the Grandmother Rockettes and The Jeanne Lynn Dancers, performing at various benefits for charity organizations including The Moffitt Cancer Center.
The Grandmother Rockettes are a group of women who have been dancing all their lives, or when they were younger, and got back into it. The dancers range in age from their 40s to 90s and perform locally at women’s clubs and church groups.
Kupsis is 64 and has no plans to stop dancing.
“I want to dance until I’m 90 like my friend, Peg Cameron,” said Kupsis.
Most recently Kupsis danced in programs at the Largo Community Center and the Seminole Recreation Center with the Jeanne Lynn Dancers. The ladies in the Jeanne Lynn Dancers are just a tad younger than the Grandmother Rockettes, spanning late 20s to 70s in age.
“I danced tap, ballet and jazz as a kid and all through high school. Then I got married,” said Kupsis.
Married 44 years to her husband, Tony, Kupsis has a daughter in Los Angeles, a son in Tampa, three grandchildren and a fourth on the way.
She moved to Florida in 1972 when her husband went to work as a fireman for the Tampa Fire Department. Kupsis’ son is also a Tampa firefighter like his father.
Kupsis has been a North Redington Beach resident for a year and lived in Indian Shores for eight years prior to that. Before she returned to dancing, she kept in shape by playing tennis and race walking.
Since 1997, Kupsis has worked part-time as a pre-screener for movies, viewing movies before they come out. She receives assignments from ad agencies representing major motion picture companies.
In her free time and when she’s not practicing a shuffle-ball-change variety dance step, Kupsis and her husband enjoy life on Florida’s Suncoast. They are avid fishermen and scuba divers. For many years now they have made an annual pilgrimage to go lobstering in The Keys.
Kupsis participated in the Jeanne Lynn Dance Studios end-of-the-year recital June 20 at the Mahaffey Theatre.
Clearly, dancing is Kupsis’ great love.
“It keeps you young,” she said.
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Article published on Tuesday, June 30, 2009
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