Al Pierro may be 108, but his spirit hasn’t dimmed a bit.

“Cha cha, hey!” he says with a broad smile, throwing up his hands.

Then a little lesson:

“Left foot, side. Feet together, right. Feet together. Left foot. Forward, back. Cha cha cha. Right foot, back. Forward. Cha cha cha.”

Yes, this is a man — one of the oldest, if not the oldest, people in Connecticut — who still gives dance lessons from his chair to his fellow residents at The Gardens at Arbor Rose in New Britain, a memory care residence owned by Hartford HealthCare.

Pierro, born on Jan. 7, 1916, has lived through two pandemics, the Great Depression, served in the Army Air Corps in World War II and had his share of personal ups and downs.

Music has always been a big part of his life. “Any record, any record,” he said.

He and his late wife, Genevieve, used to give square dance lessons in Hollywood Beach, Fla., according to his son, Jim Pierro of Plainville.

“He actually started his own dance class right on the boardwalk and one time he had almost 90 people and they would block almost the boardwalk and regular people didn’t like it, the walkers and bikers, but they would have almost 90 people and he just did it on his own,” Jim Pierro said.

“He was a very good dad,” Pierro said. “We did a lot. He’d take me to a ballgame, to Yankee Stadium a lot … and took me to the Polo Grounds. … We used to go down to the shore during the summer. We spent a week or two.”

His parents would take him and his sister, Barbara Comer, to the movies almost every Saturday night, he said.

Now Al Pierro’s short-term memory is weak, but he still remembers the old days, Jim Pierro said.

“He can bring up all the things from long ago, but he lives in the moment, and I guess that’s the best thing,” he said. “And because he can’t remember things, he doesn’t worry about them in a sense.”

His father still reads the newspaper, though. “He can tell you a few things about it. But then it won’t last in his head for any length of time,” Pierro said. “So he has good days and bad.”

“He can do a lot of things,” he said. “Play cards. Puzzles. He likes jigsaw puzzles. He can do them upside down too.”

His favorite card game? “Setback. Always setback,” Pierro said. He plays solitaire too.

“Bingo, puzzles. He likes to look at a paper or magazine,” said Laura Nigro, activities director.

Al Pierro is one of three centenarians at Arbor Rose, a safe and non-restrictive residence, according to its website.

Pierro is relatively independent, still able to eat by himself and dress himself with assistance. He still walks with this walker as well.

“Just trying to keep him actively engaged with the group is really the main thing,” said Alyssa Pagan, executive director.

“He loves bingo. Everybody helps him if he needs it. They all help each other. It’s not just him. … And he loves to teach anybody the cha cha. He used to do it more.” Now he shows other residents the steps while sitting in his chair.

Pierro is well loved at Arbor Rose, Pagan said. “He’ll make jokes and he’ll tease. He’ll tease people … and then he’ll just start laughing, sometimes even more of a belly laugh and he can’t stop once that’s going.

“He likes to laugh, he likes to dance, he likes to sing,” she said. “He just enjoys every day. … He really is a happy guy. You can see it on his face. I mean, he’s got a happy face.”