A group of old women, at an average age of 57 years, have been
practicing hip hop dance for three years in Beijing. Their
performance, which was originally disapproved by their friends and
relatives, has now been widely praised by audiences.
?
The old women are all dressed in red T-shirts and camouflage
trousers, wearing sports shoes and colorful headbands. Originally,
the dancing team had only five members. Now, about 60 women join in
the dancing team. The team head, Mrs. Wu, is 68-years-old. In spite
of their old age, their flexible steps and colorful dressing make
them look much younger than their actual age.
However, when the dancing team was first established, Mrs. Wu
said that they had met a lot of difficulties.
“I had the idea of setting up a hip hop dancing team in 2003,
when I happened to watch a national hip hop dancing competition on
TV. At that time, I thought, ‘why not establish a hip hop dancing
team among old people?’”
With this idea, Mrs. Wu went to various parks in Beijing and
tried to persuade some old people to join her. However, many people
thought her idea was just crazy.
“Some people told me directly that the dance is performed only
by bad people. Some people, who had been abroad, said that in
foreign countries, the dance was only performed by people at the
bottom of the society.”
With hard efforts, Mrs. Wu finally managed to persuade only four
people to join the team. On February 10, 2004, the old people’s hip
hop dancing team was officially established.
Some dancers in the team told the reporter that at first, they
were also not sure whether this kind of dance was suitable for
them. After dancing for some time, they asked some experts from a
sports university to do each a physical check. The checks showed
they were all in a good physical condition. And they didn’t feel
anything wrong with their body after dancing hip hop. Sometimes
Mrs. Wu would make slight changes in some difficult movements so
that they are easier for the old people.
Now all the dancers in the team said they become healthier than
before.
“I am able to hold my granddaughter in my arm now,” said Mrs.
Liu, who is 58. Mrs. Liu is able to take care of her granddaughter
while practicing the dance at the same time.
“My daughter is 40 years old and she also practice the dance
with me. We even danced together in Henan once we made a
performance there,” said Mrs. Wu.
Now the grannies practice hip hop dance for at least three times
per week. They become much busier than before. In addition to
practicing dancing, they will still have to find time to make
performances and video recordings for dancing companies.
(Chinanews.cn January 19, 2007)
