I mean people who are really really old, like in their 60s-80s?

Some of them still seem to be working as ballet teachers or choreographers. Don't dance teachers need to show students what to do?

The best ballet teacher I ever had was in her 70s, and she was brilliant. No, she couldn't get her legs round her ears, but her poise and elegance were still there, and she could demonstrate everything perfectly by marking. It works for ballet - I'm assuming ballroom and latin are the same - but you can mark steps and demonstrate with fingers. And many older teachers also have a demonstrator if they need it.

I've seen footage of Alicia Markova coaching ballet from a chair as a very old lady - and even though she was only using her head and shoulders and arms, it was perfectly clear what she was demonstrating.

Really , really old : 60s??? Oh dear .
My in laws are 91 and 93 and my great aunt lived to the great age of 109 ; now THAT is really really old .

Pamela Stephenson is 60 and she is more than holding her own in the show .
A dance teacher of her age woudl have no difficulty , yet you think that really , really old ?

Probably the greatest choreographer in the UK, Sir Frederick Ashton was choreographing into his seventies.

I'm sure Len is still able to teach perfectly.

Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet (I think), was teaching/choreographing until she was an old lady. She could do a passable cartwheel in her 70s!

Len's dancing school in Dartford apparently has a waiting list...... and we have seen Arlene working with the SCD dancers on group numbers.

As has been said - not a flexible or fast as they once were but perfectly able to choreograph

Are you for real!!?
How ageist!!

People like our pro dancers won't all of a sudden forget how to dance when they hit 60!

How ludicrous

Since "steps" are like notes and experienced dancers will know them, it's not like they need to "demonstrate" a particular step of shove them around like puppets/amateurs don't know a chasse from a latte

Peggy Spencer is still teaching.

Just wondered if the OP was joking?

I am in my sixties and still remember dance steps from decades ago.

Ok, maybe not 60s. 60s is still young in today's day and age when people retire at 70.


I guess that you can teach pro dancers when you are really really old but not beginners or intermediates, because you would have to demonstrate all the steps. How do you demonstrate a jete when you are 70?

With your fingers. Seriously, it's part of dance teaching.

This was the clip I was thinking about when I first posted - Alicia Markova coaching a young ballerina in the 1980s, demonstrating only with her arms and fingers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_qnqgF_l6w

Oh ok, good clip. Can you do the same thing with hip hop?

Let me hazard a guess ..... you're really, really young? Like 16-!8?

Cat among the pigeons. Or lamb sacrificed to lions.

Any decent dancer can do his/her stuff (barring injury) until their dying day more or less.

Bruce Forsyth can still dance. So can Len. Fred Astaire danced on and on.
60. Old. pur-leeeeze.

OP must be 12

So much knowledge from the oldies to offer and doesn't matter if they can jive like a 25-year-old.

It's a real mystery isn't it.

After all everyone knows that as soon as you are sixty you forget everything that you have ever learned and you disintegrate into a wrinkly arthritic cripple.

Well said!

http://www.istd.org/about/autobiographys/pspencer.html
"She believes that dancing is a social asset and a joy for everyone, which promotes health and fitness, and is a very rewarding hobby, allowing people to mix together freely. She lives in retirement in Norfolk, and still teaches social dance as a hobby."
She is 90

Considering people run marathons in their 80s then teaching dance should be no problem. A dancer is a dancer, no matter how old.