Dance provides ELIXIR OF YOUTH for women who are young at heart

When one member, Wen Jie, contracted lung cancer, all the troupe members came to her help encouraging her to continue to participate in dancing activities and even perform on stage. With all the troupe's activities including traveling to scenic spots diverting her attention from her illness and keeping her in high spirits, Wen lived for five years, three more than the doctor had initially predicted.

The troupe visited Taiwan in 2015, 2016 and 2018 to stage performances there. They also participated in performances in rural areas, which Chen and her members consider as a social responsibility. Her troupe has also staged performances at a number of nursing homes.

The troupe has won more than 30 prizes including a national dancing competition.

Many of the troupe have obtained certificates of model instructors and dancing teachers, which mean they can teach dance.

Chen is often invited to give lectures to senior residents about modeling or dance.

Organizing shows, bringing in new members as some dancers retire, arranging costumes and generally being there for everyone can be time consuming but the rewards are apparent.

Energy-consuming as her work is, Chen feels a sense of gratitude as her troupe is ranked as one the nation's best.

Chen believes that how one looks at oneself is more important than how others look at you. What her troupe members have done in the past more than a decade, psychologically speaking, is to convince themselves that they can conquer the perceptions of others.

"Don't call us 'grandma', call us 'goddess'" is the motto Chen uses to encourage her troupe members, whom she usually addresses as "elder sisters".

Apart from contributing to society, Chen considers what they do as a way to break the traditional impression of what senior women in their 60s or even 70s are supposed to be.

When many told her that they do not look like as old as they actually are, Chen believes that they have succeeded in transcending both the physical and psychological.