Man, if I were still living in New York City, I’d have crossed the bridge to New Jersey for this audition, as reported in New York magazine, and I don’t even like sports:

“Petra Pope noticed something funny during last season’s Nets halftime dance contests: ‘Whenever a senior citizen starts doing hip-hop moves, the crowd goes nuts.’ So Pope, the team’s director of entertainment, decided to assemble a senior dance team; tryouts were last week.”

To be eligible, you had to be older than 60 and have some dance ability. Thirty-four women and one man tried out, groovin’ to Jay-Z’s Show Me What You Got. You can see photos and interviews with some of the elders here and there is video at wcbstv.com of the winners who will be performing at games during halftime beginning in a week or so.

No, the elders probably can’t move as smoothly as the professional Nets dancers and yes, there’s a little bit of condescension in the tone of the reporters (“aren’t those old folks cute”). But I’m ignoring that. Any time elders become more visible than usual in the mainstream is a good time.

Damn, I wish I could have auditioned. I was a pretty good dancer in my day.

[Hat tip to Melinda Applegate.]

* Contributing Editor Ronni Bennett also blogs at Time Goes By, What it’s really like to get older.