A Coastline customer who was sent to ballet classes as a “weak child”, is still dancing almost 80 years later.
Margaret, who grew up in Burnley, Lancashire, began a lifelong love affair with dance after her mother introduced her to ballet at the age of just four.
The 82-year-old, a resident at Miner’s Court Extra Care, said: “I was a long string of patheticness when I was young – very tall and thin – people were concerned about me and said I needed building up.
“After a visit to the doctor, my mother decided I should be strengthened up, so I went along to ballet school.”
She joined the renowned The Joyce Heap School of Dancing, which she enjoyed for more than a decade before reluctantly giving it up whilst training to become a teacher.
However, she has continued to move to the music over the years and a recent video went viral of her pirouetting in the Miners Court lounge.
Filmed whilst bopping to Roy Orbison’s classic Pretty Woman, Margaret and other light-footed residents have generated almost 400,000 views on the day centre’s Facebook post, with more than 13,000 reactions, more than 500 comments and over 500 shares. Visit Facebook to watch the video.
“I really enjoy it here, the people are lovely and I’ve made some very good friends. We all like to do activities together and if there is something new to try, I’m happy to tackle it,” Margaret added.
After attending college in Sheffield in the 1950s, she trained as a teacher and later worked in a school for the deaf, where she taught children to lip-read and to listen using their hearing aids.
Margaret took up ballroom dancing during her adult life, particularly enjoying the jive and waltz.
“From a very young age I’ve always been moving and I’ll keep on doing it. People say I don’t look 82. Others don’t have the same mobility as me – and that’s all down to my dancing,” said Margaret, who moved to Cornwall several years ago to be near her partner’s family.