Never too old for a kick line.

The opening number of Rift Markowitz's Palm Springs Follies, the hugely successful burlesque dance review now in its 14th season at the Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs, CA, includes a frank disclosure--the ages of every member of the cast. The older the dancer, the louder the applause. In a reversal of the youth mania of the professional dance world, this show celebrates performers with decades of history on the stage. These performers, aged 57 to 87, power their fit and beautifully contoured bodies through seven to nine shows a week of kick lines, pinwheels, flash tap numbers, and grand Las Vegas showgirl costume displays.

Markowitz, the dapper 66-year-old impresario and cofounder of the Follies who introduces the show, calls this desert mecca for retirees "God's waiting room." He acknowledges the Follies as an idealized mirror of the aging body for the busloads of white-haired audience members. He warms up the crowd with jokes about Viagra, failing memories, and stiffening bodies. It was Markowitz who decided the show should open with a kick line showcasing the flawless legs of the 11 women in the group and the partnering of the six men who promenade and escort, rather than lift the women.

Joan Palethorpe, 62, who trained at The Royal Ballet School in London and now choreographs for the Follies, lauds them as an ensemble of tap, show, and burlesque dancers. They include Trina Parks, 58, a former dancer with Katherine Dunham, who says never say no" to a movement challenge. "The most important thing is to try and find steps that look tremendously energetic but don't hurt the body," Palethorpe explained in a phone interview.

In March, the show held its annual auditions, drawing hundreds of hopefuls vying for the few openings. It plays nine months a year at the Plaza, a refurbished 1930s, Moorish-style movie house. Now in his second season with the Follies, Hank Brunjes, 72, trained at the High School of Performing Arts in New York and performed in the original Broadway productions of West Side Story and Sugar Babies. What he relishes about the Follies is "the excitement of enjoying dancing rather than suffering though it." He says, "I'm used to doing Broadway shows where the most important thing was the poker game backstage. It sounds corny but this is the theater I always wanted to be in, and now I've found it."

Dorothy Kloss, 81 and in her 10th season with the Follies, was teaching tap dance in Pasadena and babysitting her grandchildren after a long career headlining in nightclubs and theaters. A friend persuaded her to audition. "I'm one of the lucky ones," she says of performing in the Follies. Kloss notes that the same standards of being slender, having good legs, and picking up steps quickly apply to the Follies dancers as readily as to younger performers. One difference, however, is the note of realism and levity that tempers every show. Kloss laughs: "Mr. M always jokes that at the Follies one minute you are standing in the wings and the next you are wearing them."