Special Guest Performer Will Appear with The Tap Chicks Aug. 13

Nancy Abbate Caldwell, 76, will be the special featured guest dancer during the Pasadena Senior Center summer concert series performance Monday, Aug. 13, at 6 p.m. by Pam Kay and The Tap Chicks.

Abbate Caldwell will share some of the highlights of her 65-year performing career, do an a capella dance solo and join Pam Kay in a duo spot.

Pam Kay and the Tap Chicks entertain with energetic dance routines, Vaudeville-style comedy and clever costumes while promoting health, longevity and quality of life through dance, defying the years and delighting audiences of all ages.

The concert series is open to all ages. Feel free to bring a picnic, family and friends. Senior citizenship and membership at the Pasadena Senior Center are not required to attend performances in the summer concert series.

Abbate, one of the original Walt Disney Mouseketeers in 1955 and 1956, was considered the best dancer in the cast and was lovingly given the nickname “The Dancer” by Annette Funicello. Abbate occasionally makes appearances with other original Mouseketeers at Disney-related events, and in 2005 was asked to restage the original Disneyland debut of the Mouseketeers for the 50th anniversary celebration, featuring children from the dance studio she ran for 30 years in Southern California. She received the Mousecar Award from The Disney Studio in 2015 for her service to the company and the Disney Legend award from the Disneyland Fan Club in 2014.

She was featured in the 1953 Betty Grable and Dale Robertson musical film The Farmer Takes a Wife, the 1955 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy film Artists and Models, the 1957 Johnny Crawford film The Courage of Black Beauty and the 2013 Tim Allen and J.K Simmons film 3 Geezers! as well as television appearances on episodes of The Ray Bolger Show, The Stu Erwin Show, The Jack Benny Show and The Donald O’Connor Show.

For the past few years she has produced, directed and choreographed a nightclub dance review called The Two Bits starring herself and dancer/actress Estee Cooper. The duo performed an act on America’s Got Talent in 2012 and made it to the semi-finals.

The remaining concerts in the six-week series, Wednesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Scott Pavilion at the Pasadena Senior Center, are Grammy-winning Lisa Haley and Zydekats playing lively Cajun Zydeco music with plenty of Louisiana spice Aug. 20; Leah Zeger performing spirited Gypsy jazz and beloved standards Aug 27; and The Great American Swing Band featuring the sounds of Big Band, rhythm and blues, jazz and Dixieland Sept. 3.

For more information visit www.pasadenaseniorcenter.net or call 626-795-4331.

Founded in 1960, the Pasadena Senior Center is an independent, nonprofit organization that offers recreational, educational, wellness and social services to people ages 50 and older in a welcoming environment. Services are also provided for frail, low-income and homebound seniors.

Photo credits: Walt Disney Productions, Nancy Abbate Caldwell