Most professional ballet dancers retire around the age of 35 but not this Queensland octogenarian who is proving it's never too late to rediscover your rhythm.
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00:00With his perfect poise and impeccable style, Leon Dahleney's dazzles.
00:10Leon has a spark which is very vital. It's infectious.
00:14Three days a week, the 83-year-old swans into this studio at Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, gets limber, then gets low.
00:21The training with ballet has actually kept my physique still in good order.
00:27He began ballet as a teenager, but pivoted in his late twenties.
00:31In those days, dancers had a fairly short career. It wasn't well paid, and I decided that I needed to have a future for myself.
00:40So he became a hairdresser, a stylist to the stars.
00:44From a Sydney salon, he worked his magic on celebrities including Vivien Leigh, Jane Powell and Sarah Vaughan.
00:50There are many more that I could name, but memory forgets a lot of things now.
00:55He finally found his feet again in his seventies, and there's been no turning back.
01:00Ballet to me is joy. It's poetry in motion.
01:03While Leon Dahleney's has been dancing for decades, that doesn't mean others can't learn how to in their later years.
01:10It's all about taking things one step at a time.
01:13Anna Payne is a similar age, and only took to the bar two years ago.
01:17Oh, if he can do it, I'm going to try exactly.
01:21He's a living inspiration to me. I love him, and he's so tenacious.
01:24He's an example that you can do anything at any stage of your life, particularly ballet.
01:29There are no plans to hang up the slippers any time soon.
01:32I will dance till I drop.