Age is just a dance number: couples at Hong Kong’s Asian Senior DanceSport Championship staying healthy, connected
- For many older dance partners, they say this sport keeps them active and helps them build stronger relationships
- Every week, Talking Points gives you a worksheet to practise your reading comprehension with exercises about the story we’ve written
Senior dance competitors pose at the Asian Senior DanceSport Championship. Photo: Hong Kong DanceSport AssociationSeniors in Hong Kong are proving that age is just a number when it comes to competitive dancing.
Many dance partners in their 40s, 50s and 60s regularly join competitions hosted by the DanceSport Association of Hong Kong, such as last month’s Asian Senior DanceSport Championship.
For some of these older couples, like Kevin Lau Kai-bun and Crystal Hung Hung-yu, picking up dance has helped them stay active.
“It’s really energetic, and actually, it’s cardio,” said Lau, aged 42. “Once we do five dances, we are all exhausted you can see. So it’s ... good for our health.”
Lau, who began dancing in secondary school, has been joining competitions with his wife, aged 45, for about six years. The couple placed third in December for their age category of the Standard Five dance, in which competitors performed the waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, slow foxtrot and quick step.
Daisy Kwok Wu Oi-yan and Alan Kwok Chun-yung left December’s competition with medals from four different Latin dance events. The recently married couple lamented that, even though they loved dancing and competing, it could be hard to find the time and energy while having jobs and two children to look after.
“We are not full-time dancers; we have our work [and] have our family to take care of,” said Kwok Wu, 50. “So every day we need to push ourselves ... we can’t sit here to watch TV; we need to exercise.”
They are the only older adults at the dance school they attend, but the couple said the teenagers there encouraged them to give more energy to their dances.
SOTY 2022: Hong Kong teen’s dances have moving message on social issues
A sport that brings people together
While the athletes admitted that the sport took hard work and dedication, they all appreciated partner dance as a sport that could bring people closer.
“It’s a very good habit for us, husband and wife, and it’s very good for communication, and we have the same topic and same hobbies too,” Kwok Wu said, adding that dancing with her husband for the past four years had given them a shared goal of winning competitions. “We have the same target.”
Her husband, 56, added that partner dance gave men an opportunity to “learn to be a gentleman”.
For Lau, he said he could not think of another activity where a couple could work so closely together.
His wife, Hung, added: “Of course, arguments are always there, but after that ... you can know each other better, and you learn how to accept [each others’] differences, and you will be more patient.”
Study Buddy (Explorer): China’s youth embrace square dancing
Not just for couples
William Tam Shuen-tin and Lisa Chung Yui-fun show that you do not need to be dating to become great dance partners. The two 68-year-olds knew each other before picking up the sport and have now been dancing side-by-side for about 17 years.
At the competition in December, Tam and Chung won second place in a Standard Five event for their age group – adding to the many wins they’ve achieved in their time dancing together.
Tam picked up the sport just because he saw it and liked it – and he’s been dancing ever since.
“It’s a very long game. Other sports, you won’t last for 10 years,” he noted, adding that the mental aspect could be tough at times. “You have to have patience.”
Like many other seniors, Tam enjoys dancing because it is an easy way to maintain his fitness.
“A lot of facilities – like they create indoor spots and in the town hall ... it’s all free of charge, and a good place to practise,” he noted.
Regardless of their age or placement in the latest event, the seniors all looked forward to many more years of twirling and gliding across the dance floor.
To test your understanding of this story, download our printable worksheet or answer the questions in the quiz below.