Having people perform in the street is not an uncommon sight in large cities, and Madrid is no exception. A Facebook post from Dec. 2, 2015, captured a street dancer inviting passers by to dance with him. An older lady is then seen coming up the street. She looks longingly at the dancing, but she is hobbling along with a cane and explains to those that she is passing that she has arthritis. Once she gets to the dancer, she asks if she may dance. He suggests they dance a slower rhythm than the one he just finished, and she agrees. Shortly after they start, though, the two break out into an energetic salsa that has the street dancer throwing the elderly lady through his legs and around his neck.
Come to find out, the two dancers are Sarah “Paddy”Jones and Nico Espinosa. The two made their debut to stardom on Britain’s Got Talent in April 2014. On the show, Simon buzzed the two within the first minute of their dance. Right after he buzzed them, the two began their acrobatic salsa routine, and his jaw literally dropped open. At the end of the show, David, one of the other judges, said, “You’re an amazing example to older people because you’ve shown that no matter how old you are, you can still be spectacular and beautiful and still do something amazing.”
Jones, of Gandia, Spain, at 81 years of age holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest acrobatic salsa dancer. In an interview for Guinness, Jones reveals that she began dancing at two and one-half; but when she got married, she gave up dancing. After her husband passed away, she returned to dancing and met her partner at Nico’s Dance Academy where he was her instructor.
The reason Espinosa and Jones staged the dance routine in Madrid, according to El Pais, was for “El Hormiguero” to send a message to the elderly as well as the young that “age is just a mental state.” The elderly do not have to be frail. “Every older person has great potential, and we should not treat them as if they are good for nothing.” Jones embodies the idea that youth is not dependent upon age. At 81 she is accomplishing something that people much younger than her can only dream of. When she finishes the dance in the streets of Madrid, she faces the camera and says, “We are young!”
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