Dancing to beat of her dreams

62-year-old's popular troupe is proving it's never too late to follow your passions

Du Si has been a dance enthusiast from a very young age, yet her life as a performer only began after she started to turn gray.

Despite the summer heat and unseasonal rain, Du, 62, always arrives at her impromptu open-air "dance studio", a park in Beijing filled with black bamboo, on time.

Besides dancing herself, Du over the past seven years has acted as the teacher, manager, sound engineer and accountant for her dance troupe, where she is known as "Teacher Du".

As soon as Du starts dancing, her expressive arm movements and gestures show her great passion for life, enchanting the other dancers and her many fans as she twirls in the afternoon sun.

Pursuing beauty

Du founded her dancing troupe in the park across the street from one of China's top dance academies in 2012.

By 2015, it had grown into a renowned organization consisting of about 30 regular dancers, almost all of whom are retirees in their fifties and sixties.

Different from ordinary dancing, their performances have a unique quality, employing the distinct folk music and dance flavor of different ethnic groups - Dai, Mongol and Tibetan.

Their special costumes of long skirts, ankle boots and colorful scarves form beautiful, enchanting scenes in the park.

Du says that they try to meet the "three beauties" gold standard of dance: beautiful costumes, beautiful motion and beautiful spirit.

"We are pretty though we are old, and more importantly our beauty resides in who we are," Du said.

The troupe is also acutely aware of its social responsibilities, and Du asks her team not to leave litter where they dance. They have even been awarded "best visitors to the park" by the park management center for six straight years.