Dancers Find Second Act In Palm Springs
The Palm Springs Follies is an old-fashioned musical revue designed for an audience who remembers when this sort of entertainment wasn’t old fashioned. But it’s not only for older people — it’s by older people. The dancers range in age from 55 to 84. The show, an institution in Palm Springs, is getting ready to wrap up its 23rd and final season in May. All of the women and men on stage were professional dancers — and thanks to Follies co-founder Riff Markowitz, they still are. He got the idea for an old-fashioned musical revue when he saw a refurbished old theater in Palm Springs’ struggling downtown. It reminded him of the places where he saw variety shows when he was a kid. He thought, why not do that again? He decided it should be “Follies with [performers] old enough to understand what they were doing, instead of young people acting as if they were old people — because we remember, because we were there.”
