And just for the older crowd …

So, why have a special "seniors" stage at To Life! Street Festival?

"We wanted to make the seniors feel special," said Ellen Tafeen, co-chair of the To Life! entertainment committee. Besides selecting performers of all ages and music that they thought would especially appeal to the older crowd, Tafeen and fellow volunteers paid careful attention to special needs — such as shelter from the sun and easy access to nearby parking and restrooms.

Some years the weather has been brutally hot at To Life!, so precautions have been taken to ensure the older crowd remains comfortable during this year's event on Sunday, Sept. 18.

Umbrellas will shade most of the audience-seating area. The stage will be located the same place as last year, on Mimosa Lane near California Avenue. Restrooms are close by, as is a special senior parking lot.

Some in the lineup, such as the crowd-pleasing Ladino singer Mark Levy, the Yiddish Choristers and HaShirim, are repeat performers brought back by popular demand. Others, such as standup comic Lynn Ruth Miller (who will also serve as emcee), were welcomed for their age-appropriate repertoire.

And then there's Fantasy Dance Group, a colorfully costumed troupe of youthful performers ranging in age from 4 to 20. Most are the children of Jewish émigrés, many of them Russian, who have settled in the Bay Area.

The genesis of the group goes back about two and a half years, said Milla Serper, who works at the Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center and whose daughter, Sharon, belongs to the group.

Serper developed a friendship with Fantasy artistic manager and choreographer Alla Harea after learning that they came from the same town in Moldova. In the process she also learned that Harea had been a dance teacher in her native town, and suggested she might want to start a class locally. Before long Harea was renting space at the Palo Alto JCC; her first class began with three students — including Serper's daughter, Sharon (who turns 10 this month).

The group has grown steadily ever since.

Most of the youngsters speak Russian, said Serper, and the dances run the gamut: folk, Russian, salsa and more. The majority of the children live in the South Bay, though some come from as far as San Francisco.

With its diverse dances and attractive costuming, the energetic troupe "is a little more sophisticated" than one would expect, explained Tafeen, and thus a good fit for the seniors stage.

Most of the performance artists, she added, deserve credit for volunteering their time and talents to the festival or offering reduced rates.

For that matter, so does Portola Valley resident Tafeen, who calls herself a "professional volunteer."

"I just wanted to help the Jewish community," she said, "and I was interested in providing an activity for seniors."