Sharon Griffiths Meets...

"RIGHT, right arm up and over and stre-e-etch. Make that Christmas pudding disappear! Now other arm, other way and stre-e-etch again."

The instructor in black tights and leotard skips down from the stage and darts among the 50 women doing the exercise class as they bend and stretch. "Right, now we're circling hips and feet..."

They circle, bend, dip and turn, constantly on the move. Despite this, some of them even have breath enough to sing along to the music accompanying the class. For here are no scratchy tapes, but a real live pianist, cheerfully playing in the corner.

She moves effortlessly from Under the Bridges of Paris through Sweet Little Alice Blue Gown to Daisy Daisy and a host of other songs from the past 50 years or so.

An exercise class much like any other - except that the participants range in age from late fifties through to 90 years old. The instructor's 74 and the pianist is 85. So what's your excuse for not keeping fit?

When magazines and colour supplements have been full of slim young things taking up their new year exercise, here's a class that proves exercise really is for everyone and can bring great benefits whatever your age and ability.

This must be one of the jolliest classes in the region. Lots of activity, country dancing ("No, don't swing your partner, just pass and back again. All I ask is that you don't steam roller anyone.") a bit of chat and plenty of laughs. And, after a two-hour session, a lot of health benefits too. "We send them home from here as loose women," says Audrey Walker, the instructor at the council-run class at Darlington's Dolphin Centre.

She and Elsie Cloughton, the pianist, have been involved for years with the Keep Fit Association. Audrey since the 1960s and Elsie since just after the war. "A way of getting the carpet slipper generation off their bottoms," says Elsie, who can remember the early days of making her own costume - "just a yard of material and a hole cut for your head."

Audrey, an athlete since schooldays, still keeps up her Keep Fit qualifications and was one of the runners with the baton in the Golden Jubilee last year, for which she went into training jogging round the streets of Darlington, "a different sort of fitness." As well as this class - in which she's constantly on the move for the whole two hours - she also teaches line dancing and looks years younger than her age.

Elsie, who taught dancing at the old High School and was long a stalwart of the Darlington music scene, was last year made an honorary life member of the English Folk Dance and Song Society - she'd already been awarded their gold badge after more than 50 years of playing for dance groups in the town, including a number of trips abroad, "with a piano accordion then because you can't get a piano on the bus".

The third member of the trio is Mary Slater, 77, who would normally help with the instruction and the admin, but is currently travelling on the far side of the world. They've been doing this for years and show no signs of slowing down. The class is as much social as exercise. A good ten minute chat to start, then there are outings and parties.

"People are getting older later," says Audrey, after the class finishes a country dance. "And what we try and do in a class like this is keep people supple so they can keep moving, make the most of life."

It's also good mental exercise too - remembering the complex pattern of moves for some of the dances. Keeps you on your toes in all ways.

It's fair to say that there's not much flash designer Lycra here - more comfy trousers and baggy tops. There are no exercises that involve getting down onto the floor - too many hip and knee replacements - and no going for the burn. Audrey looks horrified at the thought. "That's an outdated idea for any age now," she says.

People do the exercises to the best of their capacity. Some wouldn't be out of place at a class with 20-year-olds, others are less ambitious. Occasionally one or two will sit out for one dance or session, but then legs rested, breath regained, they're back again. It's all very relaxed.

"The only time I say anything - apart from the instructions - is if they're doing anything that could be dangerous or damaging," says Audrey. "Otherwise people do what they can and most people can do a lot."

Like those pianists who used to accompany the silent movies, Elsie can adjust her playing to suit the action - bright and breezy to get them going, slowing down when they need a breather. She and Audrey work in such harmony they must be telepathically linked. She needs no sheet music but half the fun is spotting the tunes as they weave in and out. Dream A Little Dream was in there somewhere, some Scottish folk songs, Take Good Care of Yourself and the Isle of Capri.

"Elsie's playing is part of the pleasure. Some people come just for that," says Audrey.

"When I started playing for dancers and keep fit classes of course there were no such things as cassette players or anything like that," says Elsie, who occasionally leaves her piano stool to help Audrey demonstrate a particular move.

After an hour there's a short break, time for a sit down and a chat. Some of the class leave now, wary of pushing themselves too hard. But most stay.

One group of friends - bright, cheerful active - turn out, amazingly, all to be well into their 80s but ban me from putting their names in the paper "because no one knows how old we are". And you certainly wouldn't guess.

"It's an excellent class," says one. "Very friendly, not competitive. Doesn't matter if you make a mess of it, you just enjoy it."

Nora Johnson has been coming to the class for 13 years. "It's done wonders for me," she says.

And as she's 90 years old, has been exercising for over an hour and is about to walk home, it's hard to disagree...

* Senior Citizens' keep fit takes place in the Central Hall of the Dolphin Centre, Darlington every Tuesday 2pm-4pm.