Dancing keeps these grannies young and happy
Print Edition
On an overcast, early winter day, at the foot of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in downtown Shanghai, a group of women over 50 danced with a passion to get rid of the cold in the air.
They were dressed in yellow cardigans, silver vest, shimmering green baseball caps and sunglasses. From a distance you might take them for young men doing the moon walk or popping.
But taking a closer look, bystanders were amazed: “They are trendy old ladies!” The street dance grannies are from a fitness club in Anting Town, Jiading District.
People can hardly believe that a slim lady in a black dress with stylish curled hair is already 62 years old. She is Chen Shoujie, the team leader of the group.
Chen believes that as people grow older they need to keep young mentality. She bought the stylish outfits online.
Chen first saw older people doing street dance on a TV program and, in her words: “When I am looking at the apple in front of me, I would like to taste it. That’s my attitude to life.”
She has now made this team of senior dancers outstanding among other groups in Jiading contests. Considering the dancers are all seniors, Chen gets rid of those too intense elements in the dance. Instead, she adds some relatively soft ones, such as robot and moonwalk.
However, some dancers were not supported by their families in the beginning.
Tian Huizhen, 57, joined the group half a year ago. After her first day’s practice of heel clicks on the ground, she suffered cramp in both of her legs.
Her daughters advised her not to continue, worrying that it would be too much for her. But Tian went on training and after three months she told her daughters that dancing was not only good for her health but brought her a lot of happiness.
An interesting thing happened at a fashion store when Tian and Chen wanted to buy street dancing dress.
They picked up a brilliant green baseball cap but the shop’s owner could not believe the two women could dance. So they gave him a demonstration right away.
The shop owner was so impressed and gave them a big discount for the dress at last.
Today, dancing at the community square, the street dancing team now has more than 40 members and even young people in their 20s have been attracted to dance with them.
Chen’s elder sister Chen Shoujiao is one of the members. In the past, the sisters didn’t meet often because they had their own families to look after. “Now we get together frequently, which is another reward from the dancing,” said Chen Shoujie with a smile.
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