Ballroom & hip hop

Age is nothing but a number, and beauty knows no boundaries – Nancy Lee

Director Nancy Lee, said, talking about the video, that as preparation she had spent a few weeks attending ballroom dancing events around Vancouver to learn more about the ballroom culture among older dancers. It was there, that she met the fabulous Melissa Wong, 80 years old, and Jeffrey Lee, in his 60s, who agreed to let her film them. As a result, she created this beautiful film.

When asked why she had made the film, Nancy Lee said, “it comes from a feeling that the elderly population is often misrepresented or even excluded from our popular culture and mainstream media”. She went on to say that she wanted to “challenge the prejudiced perceptions of the elderly” and “create new narratives that speak about the elderly in a positive light. Seniors, much like the rest of society, can be beautiful, active, independent, happy and romantic. Age is nothing but a number, and beauty knows no boundaries.”

The combination of Hip Hop and ballroom dancing and the way the film is shot shows that we should find more ways to collide different cultures more often. And Melissa’s smile is just goldust. Inspiring stuff.