Senior citizen dance team to lead ‘Ice Cream and Cake’ at ODU/JMU game Wednesday

Brian Reese
·3 min read

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Wednesday’s matchup between ODU and JMU men’s basketball might not have the same hype as their Dec. 9 game that drew a record crowd of 8,504 to ODU’s Chartway Arena.

But there is one big thing the previous contest couldn’t compete with.

This time around, seniors from a local retirement community will lead the dance to ODU’s unofficial athletics anthem “Ice Cream and Cake,” the lesser known jam (at least outside of ODU circles) from “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” creators the Buckwheatz Boyz.

The team at Atlantic Shores Retirement Community in Virginia Beach, a sponsor of ODU Athletics, got inspiration from the dance scene in the 2023 comedy “80 for Brady” and videos online of older adults dancing at sporting events.

“We threw out this idea to a group of our residents and they were literally like ‘yeah we’re in.'” said Cameron Gwaltney, director of sales and marketing at Atlantic Shores.

Wednesday’s performance will have about 30 residents (ranging in age from about 65-85) and staff, several of which who have ties to ODU and JMU.

The dance instructor is actually an Atlantic Shores resident herself: 74-year-old Beth Bagley.

“She got a hold of this and is just running with it,” Gwaltney said.

<em>Beth Bagley (right) leads a rehearsal of “Ice Cream and Cake” (Courtesy of Atlantic Shores and O’Brien et al. Advertising)</em>
Beth Bagley (right) leads a rehearsal of “Ice Cream and Cake” (Courtesy of Atlantic Shores and O’Brien et al. Advertising)

Bagley teaches line dancing at Atlantic Shores and says she learned the choreography through YouTube.

“I was going to teach it to my line dancers, that’s only about 6 to 8 dancers, well all of a sudden [marketing coordinator Becky King] brings in the staff, marketing and everybody in administration. It just blossomed into the point where we have like 30 dancers now,” Bagley said.

And the group picked things up quickly.

“It requires memory and transition from one move to the next, but luckily because it’s so much repetition … it’s easy to learn, all you have to learn the patterns, so it’s a lot of fun,” Bagley said.

Bagley says it’s just cool to see how such a wacky dance can bring everyone together.

“It’s a kick, people are just loving it because it’s this energy. I told them to all go take stock in Geritol because they’re going to need a lot of it,” she joked. “… I’m just enthusiastically pleased with how much people volunteered to do this … and we have fun with it, when you make a mistake you laugh and get right into it again.”

After several rehearsals the crew will be ready to go — decked out in ODU gear and even eye black — once that timeout hits in the late second half.

Gwaltney says there’s no telling what moves they’ll bust out.

“There’s one part of the song where everyone has to hit a pose, you’ve to hit four different poses, and every time we do it people will just come up with more and more ridiculous things … I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

You can follow Atlantic Shores on TikTok and their other social media for updates on the dance crew and other events in the community.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.