CLEVELAND — TikTok enthusiast, musician, Cavs dancer. All words that describe….my dad.
Yes, ever since I could remember, my dad has been one of a kind, but John Webb's post-retirement dance career is something I never would have expected. It all started after I turned my parents on to the viral dance challenges popularized on social media (which I don't recall doing, for the record).
“I remember you turned us on to Facebook - we didn't know anything about Facebook and now we're hooked,” my dad told me in a recent conversation about his many passions.
Now he spends his days doing routines on TikTok, but my dad's dance history dates back for decades. He told me that his skills actually started in his junior high years.
“[I would be] watching Soul Train and I would try to do the moves. I didn't think anything of it, and one day at a party I did a little bit of it. [My friends] went crazy and I was hooked. I said 'oh I'm gonna practice some more, the girls like this,” he told me with a laugh.
And now, after a full career at Water Pollution Control, my dad is reconnecting with his dancing roots by joining a dance troupe called the "Wine and Goldies," which is the 50 and over dance team for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Their coach, Lexiiy Nelson, says the troupe really connects with the crowd at games.
“We truly get to throw it back [to the] old school and tap into their generation of music, their generation of dancing,” she said. “This year we had such a huge outcome for auditions. Over 200 people showed up, and I know that all of their family members are excited to watch their moms, dads, grandpas, and grandmas all hit the court and be able to show off their skills.”
I was there for the group’s season debut on the court, and Lexiiy was not wrong. In front of a crowd of 20,000 people, I was able to watch my dad take the biggest stage of his life. To see him and all the dancers dominate the court, then leave like champions was a memory I will not soon forget.
For so long, everyone expected people of a certain age to retire and then slow down. But my dad and his fellow dance teammates are proving those notions wrong.
“I did retire at 55 from my official job with the city,” my dad told me. “But now I'm doing what I love. I'm dancing, I'm singing, I'm playing different instruments. I'm just having fun now. Now it's just fun time.”