Meet the Sizzlin’ Seniors, the hottest dance squad in the NBA

The Sizzlin’ Seniors, made up of women who live in the 55+ Anthem Ranch community in Broomfield, perform at the Denver Nuggets games at least once a month during the regular season and at select playoff games.

“We want to encourage people who are aging to have fun and be an example to others that it's okay to grow old,” said Wendy Anderson, the founder and team captain. 

“We feel all the love from the fans. It's just incredible,” she said. “Everyone's got a mom or a sister or an aunt or a grandma. And I think they all resonate with us because we have fun.”

Anderson started the dance group that would become the Sizzlin’ Seniors in 2019. That group, called the Wranglerettes, performs at nursing homes, senior centers and hospitals. The Wranglerettes are still active during the Nuggets’ off-season. 

The same year, Anderson heard that another Anthem Ranch resident’s son, an entertainment manager for the Denver Nuggets, was looking for a senior dance group to perform at the games.

Enter the Wranglerettes, rechristened as the Sizzlin’ Seniors for their Nuggets-related appearances. (Anderson came up with the name while cooking bacon.)

The Denver Nuggets Dancers help choreograph and teach the group its routines. Since their first performance in November 2019, the Sizzlin’ Seniors have become a crowd favorite among Nuggets fans attending the games.

“There are actually some fans that come to the games just because we're performing that night,” Anderson said.

Anderson said it’s not uncommon for people to offer them drinks or invite them to watch the game in their suites after their performance. The dancers also receive plenty of high fives and photo requests from fans.

“You have to kind of pinch yourself to believe it, that of all the people in the world here I am on the court of the Denver Nuggets and getting to dance for them,” Joan Moores said. 

Moores is one of the oldest members on the team, and she’s been there since the beginning. Born and raised in Colorado, Moores has been cheering on the team for as long as she can remember. Donning her Sizzlin’ Seniors shirt and jacket with the official Nuggets logo, she said it’s very special to represent her hometown team in this way.

The Sizzlin’ Seniors represent more than just a basketball team. To Cindy Powers, the group proudly defies society’s stigma towards aging.

“People think once you're 55 and up, it's over,” said Powers, the group’s media coordinator. 

“I'm here to tell you it's not over,” Powers said. “It's only the beginning. If you would have told me when I was in grammar school that when I retired I'd be dancing in front of 20,000 people, I would have said, ‘what?!’”

Powers said audiences enjoy watching the group perform because it gives them hope for what aging could look like — and it reminds them of their grandmothers. 

“I mean, who doesn't love their grandma?” Powers said.

The group has two mandatory hour-long rehearsals and two optional rehearsals every week, so most members practice about four hours a week at the Anthem Ranch community center.

As exhilarating as the time on the basketball court is, each performance is about a minute long. Most of the time the women spend together is absent of bright lights and screaming fans. 

For many of the members, the group is more than a club. It’s a sisterhood complete with a group chat to keep each other updated about the Nuggets’ score on game day.

“We get to know each other, heart and soul, so to speak,” Moores said. “I love having that closeness to a group of women that have the same goal in mind. It's very rewarding that way. The friendships evolve, and we'll have them, I would imagine, forever, even when we can't dance.”

Long-time Nuggets fan Joan Moores is one of the group’s oldest members. She loves the thrill of performing at the games and the deep friendships she’s built with her fellow dancers.
Photo: Carly Rose, Rocky Mountain PBS

At this stage of their lives, many of the group’s members are dealing with illness or the loss of loved ones. Anderson said three members, including Moores, have lost their husbands since the group began.

Dancing is a physical outlet for stress and grief, and the group offers community connection and stability to its members who are hurting.

“When something occurs in your life where everything changes — the way you eat, the way you shop, the way you sleep — but when you have this hour with your team, that didn't change,” Anderson said. “We gather together, and we're strong together.”

The group held tryouts for the first time this season, after building back up to its pre-pandemic numbers of 25, which is the limit of people who can dance on the court at one time.

Right now, involvement in the group is only open to those living in the Anthem Ranch community, since the convenient access to a regular practice space — at no extra cost to the Nuggets organization — is what makes the group possible.

Anderson said she’d like to find a way to make the experience available to more people outside of the community, and she hopes more NBA teams will consider including senior dance teams in their entertainment line-ups.

There are several senior dance teams across the NBA, including for the Miami Heat, the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans. The Heat’s Golden Oldies, the league’s original senior dance team, can be booked to perform at private events for $150 per hour per dancer.

Anderson has been a dancer all her life, though she never dreamed that starting a club at her community center would land her on the court at Ball Arena.

But the Sizzlin’ Seniors are proof that it’s never too late for your big break.

“Don't ever rule out that you can be a star on that dance floor,” Anderson said.

Carly Rose is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. Carlyrose@rmpbs.org