A group of retirees cheered under disco lights as 60-year-old Xu Li leapt into her partner’s arms, her legs spread akimbo in perfect splits.
It was just a regular Wednesday at one of Shanghai’s many lunchtime dance clubs, a phenomenon born of the city’s deeply rooted love of ballroom culture from its jazz-age heyday.
On any given day, multiple venues host hours-long daytime sessions across the finance hub, some starting as early as 6am.
Establishments such as the historic Paramount Ballroom are time capsules from the 1930s, while others flash with neon pink and green rave lights in the early afternoon.
All are important spaces for their mostly elderly clientele to socialise and reclaim the past through the medium of foxtrot, rumba and polka.
“I was quite lonely at home,” says 66-year-old Lin Guang at a dance hall called Old Dreams of Shanghai in December, explaining he had felt lost after retiring. “Coming here to dance makes me feel young again. Now, I seem to have endless energy.”
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