ART FOR THE AGES ARTISTS PURSUE THEIR CRAFTS AFTER 50.(Show)

Byline: Irene Gardner Keeney Staff writer

*America is graying. Local people in the performing and visual arts aren't just getting older, they're getting better. Here is what several of them had to say about this period of post-modern maturity.

Someone recently asked Gertrude Hallenbeck what she did at the Hallenbeck School of the Dance.

"You are not still dancing - at your age?" the incredulous acquaintance asked. Hallenbeck says she answered: "No one ever told me I couldn't. Yes, I'm still dancing at 68."

Hallenbeck, a petite bundle of energy, will begin her 50th year of teaching dancing in January. "I don't know how I got here this fast," she laughs. "Once I got 'over the hill,' I seemed to pick up speed. I just hope the second 50 years are as good as the first."

Dancing into her second half-century keeps Hallenbeck on her toes, literally and figuratively. In addition to teaching a full schedule at her studio on Colvin Avenue in Albany, she travels around the country conducting workshops for dance teachers.

She's not the only "mature" dancer these days. "There's a dance explosion right now, and not just for young people," she says. "There are more adults taking lessons, some in their early 50s and some in their late 70s."

Dance has been a way of life for Gertrude Hallenbeck. She's been teaching since 1939 at the school founded by her father, the late Oscar J. Hallenbeck, in 1920. She has a good role model to follow. He was actively involved in the administration and teaching until his retirement in 1976 at age 79.

Hallenbeck is a graduate of the Albany Academy for Girls, where she returned to become head of the dance department for 16 years. She studied with the School of The American Ballet, which is the school of the New York City Ballet, and at Jacob's Pillow and with the Vilzak-Schollar School.

She's a consultant, clinician and choreographer for Kimbo Educational Records; a master dance teacher since 1952 for every major dance teacher organization. She's also the author of a ballet text book,"A Touch of Ballet"; a guest choreographer for the Empire State Institute for the …