NORTH CAPE MAY – Doris Rago is keeping up a tradition she started 25 years ago to bring dancing, singing and Broadway-type entertainment to the people in this area.
She even started a group called the Dancing Grannies, performing at local festivals and parades. Doris wouldn’t say how old she is (“around 82,” she admitted) but she’s been dancing and choreographing since the early 1970s.
Doris, a native of Northeast Philly who danced professionally under the name of Doris Ray, explained that just about everything she’s done with her dance in recent years has been non-profit. She had to stop Dancing Grannies six years ago because of illness.
“People are asking me to restart the group,” she said. Dancing Grannies was so popular, she pointed out, that they got invited to perform for senior citizens at the Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and opened for Paul Anka and John Travolta as well as 1940s star Jane Powell.
On June 15, 16, 22 and 23 her group, the Showstoppers, entertained at St. John Neumann Parish with a program of Broadway tunes and skits.
“I did the choreography,” she said. “The director is Bernie Henry. Our pastor, Father Ernest Soprano is very supportive.” And so is her father. At 105 years old Frank Rago came to every show. Her sister, Irene Inko, 84, of Lower Township, also came to the performances.
This program has been going on for six years with Doris joining the troupe five years ago. “I’ve been dancing for years and have always volunteered teaching people how to dance,” she noted.
A former high school teacher, Doris formed a dance group 25 years ago to keep girls from getting into trouble.
“I started with the rec center in North Wildwood in 1970s,” she noted, “where I taught ballet and jazz. The second one was in Wildwood Crest, then in Lower Township, as well as an evening class in Wildwood High School for adults and the elderly. I also taught at Ocean City Art Center.”
For 13 years she taught classes at Cape May Convention Hall for adults, mostly elderly, “which resulted in people asking us to perform in activities. That’s how Dancing Grannies got started.”
Doris said the Grannies left such an impression on people that “I recently got a call from a lady from a Protestant church telling me that we had danced for them a few years ago and wondered if we were still around. I’ve been thinking about restarting the group.”
Doris is a 35-year member of the Dance Masters of America which provides judges on such TV dance shows as “Dancing With The Stars.”
“You become a member through invitation only,” she said. “Once you’ve been in the business for awhile you get known and then invited.”
Doris Rago, a.k.a. Doris Ray, is indeed very well known in dance circles.
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