Seniors pop and lock to breakdancing beats
Specializing in Creative for Boomers and Gen X
"Middle age is when you're faced with two temptations and you choose the one that will get you home by nine o'clock."
- Ronald Reagan
Seniors pop and lock to breakdancing beats
Head spins and monkey flips are noticeable by their absence. But in their place there is a lot of laughter and a thumping beat, along with the occasional grimace and yelp of frustration.
The 10 people – wearing bright orange and green T-shirts that mark them out as members of Ara Style Senior – do not belong to the demographic you would normally associate with breakdancing. Their average age hovers just below 70, and the oldest is 74. But on a hot afternoon in an eastern Tokyo suburb, amid nervous smiles and initial timing issues, the group ends with a perfectly executed pose the dance’s originators in 1970s New York neighbourhoods would probably agree is not too shabby at all. Senior breaking is one of a growing category of sports tailored to Japan’s large population of older people who, thanks to the country’s extraordinary longevity statistics, are determined to keep popping and locking for as long as their bodies will allow.
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