Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • ♪ (ragtime music) ♪

  • - (Simon Cowell) Welcome. - Thank you.

  • (Simon Cowell) Please, could I have your names?

  • - I'm Paddy. - And I'm Nico.

  • I will be 80 this July.

  • Oh my god! She looks a lot older than that!

  • She looks older than 80 though!

  • ♪ (accordion music) ♪

  • This looks ridiculous.

  • She's about ready to rip her clothes off, I just know it.

  • Well some of the audience looks a little bored.

  • ♪ (accordion music continues) ♪

  • Simon's very bored.

  • He's yawning.

  • (buzzing)

  • That reminded me of "The Gong Show"!

  • Yep. Simon doesn't like anybody.

  • ♪ (salsa music) ♪

  • (crowd bursts into cheers)

  • Holy cow!

  • The old girl's got some little spring in her yet!

  • Unbelievable!

  • She don't have no 80 year old body. That's for sure.

  • Hah hah!

  • (raucous laughter)

  • Yo' mama!

  • (laughter)

  • Oh my god!

  • She must have a mask on.

  • She not 80.

  • (laughter) Go granny!

  • How much they must've practiced to do that. Wow.

  • (cheering from audience)

  • Yes!

  • (laughter)

  • She deserves an ovation.

  • Give us Simon Cowell. Oh, he liked it! Shock.

  • Bless her heart.

  • Wonder what she's doing later.

  • Wow, uh...well, I apologize for what I did.

  • Well, at least he had enough class to apologize.

  • - (Simon) You're an amazing-- - She reminds me of the gal from the Titanic.

  • The old lady.

  • 'Cause you've shown that however old you are you can still be spectacular

  • and beautiful and do something amazing.

  • She can...all people can.

  • - Yeah. - If you want, you can.

  • - (wild applause) - That's true.

  • I have been a dancer from the age of 2 1/2

  • and I gave it up to get married.

  • I went to live in Spain with my husband and, unfortunately,

  • - after 18 months he died. - Oh.

  • And for something to do, I went to Nico's Dance Academy

  • to learn something totally different and--

  • She learned to dance after her husband died?

  • I spoke to the family and I said, "What do you think?"

  • And they said, "Well, you gave everything up to have us without a dad.

  • - And he would be proud." - (judge) Yes, he would!

  • I think that's a good story.

  • (judge) You are my hero.

  • That is something that I've never seen before--

  • A blow for the elders!

  • That one got me, guys! That one did.

  • Now she's a true role model.

  • Be able to dance and do all those actions that she did,

  • and under the legs and over the top and, you know...

  • it's like Gumby.

  • That's really touching.

  • Kinda reminds me of my mom was really spectacular on the piano.

  • (Finebros) So what's the first word that comes to your mind

  • - after you watch something like that? - Inspiring.

  • Role model.

  • Determination.

  • Agility and drive.

  • (Finebros) When she first started dancing and it was more normal and slow

  • did you have any idea what was about to happen?

  • No way.

  • I had no idea whatsoever.

  • I didn't think it was in the realm of possibilities.

  • I expected her to strip her clothes off.

  • No, no, and I thought, "Oh man, they are gonna get so shot up."

  • You know, people are just gonna start throwing things at 'em.

  • (Finebros) Why do you think her performance wowed the crowd so much?

  • I think they were not expecting it.

  • Our minds do not believe that that can happen.

  • They saw a lovely but slightly wrinkled face,

  • so there was a perception there that it was going to be some waltz.

  • Well, it ain't no waltz, baby!

  • And then you see she's got this pure heart and says,

  • "I think my husband would be happy." You know, it just chokes me up.

  • (Finebros) Do you think with proper training you could dance

  • - like she danced? - Not in heels.

  • I'm not saying I couldn't take a step, but I think I'd fall on my ass.

  • Oh sure.

  • I've always been a good dancer.

  • With proper training, yes.

  • I keep myself in shape to be in the long run.

  • (Finebros) She talked about how she had these dancing aspirations

  • but she decided to give it up to raise her family.

  • Do you relate at all to that idea that there's things you maybe want to do

  • with your life, but circumstance ends up leading you into another direction?

  • Definitely!

  • Absolutely! I loved tap dancing, and I did it for a long time.

  • But I got married.

  • As a woman, and you're raising a family, that should come first!

  • I was a typical little housewife and I didn't really have time

  • to do things I really enjoyed.

  • I think very, very true of women of my generation.

  • You got married and you had children and you stayed home.

  • People did not work when they had children.

  • By the time you were probably five or six months pregnant,

  • the office didn't even let you come in anymore.

  • I put off being a registered nurse because I got married

  • and I had two kids and I wanted to raise my children

  • to be the best people that they can be.

  • My husband at that time suggested, "Why don't you go back to school,

  • try and be an RN?"

  • So that's what I did and I achieved it.

  • (Finebros) Why does that happen so often, that you things that you really want

  • to do, but you're just not able to pursue them?

  • They get older. (chuckling)

  • When we're young, we are naive.

  • We sort of take things at face value and figure, "Oh everybody's gonna

  • have a white picket fence and everybody's gonna live happily ever after!"

  • They were wrong.

  • Someone else wants you to do this and then to do that.

  • You know, so we just get caught up doing this and that

  • and we don't put the focus where it needs to be.

  • But it is wonderful when a whole lifetime seems to be devoted to the self-sacrifice

  • or the caring for others and raising the children.

  • And then eventually they start their own lives and it's not too late!

  • And so many people are starting all new lives and new careers.

  • (Finebros) Do you find that as you've gotten older people dismiss you

  • - to a certain degree? - Sure.

  • Yes. Oh, yes, I do.

  • Until they need money.

  • They don't dismiss you at all when they need help.

  • You're not a person anymore. You become just some old person.

  • As you get older and you're going down the street

  • and they don't look at you, they look right through you.

  • If people would just look around as they get older and see the people

  • that can hardly walk, people who can't walk, they would count their blessings.

  • That's what they need to do rather than criticize older people.

  • (Finebros) Would you say that even at your age

  • - you still have dreams and goals? - Definitely.

  • Yeah, live! (laughs)

  • That's it. Being alive.

  • Yeah, but I'm not gonna tell you what they are.

  • Listen to me, Benny.

  • Elder people can have dreams too! Okay?

  • We're not just some senile old biddies sitting on the coach.

  • We do have dreams too, just like when we did when were a child.

  • So there.

  • (Finebros) Her dancing partner said that anyone can do anything

  • no matter who they are. Do you believe that?

  • I agree with him 100%.

  • I learned to ride a motorcycle when I was 60.

  • I do.

  • If you can bring hope..why not?

  • Plenty of other people are trying to tear hope down.

  • Everybody can't do everything, whether you're young or old.

  • The young people say, "Oh, that's wonderful,

  • but I'll do that when I'm their age."

  • Don't assume that 'cause we don't know how long we're going to be on this Earth.

  • (Finebros) So back to this video, it has over 20 million views.

  • Why do you think this video is so popular?

  • First of all, it's G rated.

  • You can share it with anybody.

  • It makes people feel, "Well, maybe my old age isn't going to be

  • spelled as an old fart."

  • She finally got a chance to really twirl.

  • And, you know, maybe it's just that 15 seconds,

  • but that's maybe all she needed. It's all I needed, seeing her!

  • (Finebros) And, finally, has watching this video inspired you in any way?

  • Yeah, it did.

  • To know it can be done.

  • Very inspiring.

  • Age is really attitude.

  • Honestly, no.

  • But I'm already doing a lot of things, I think, that keep me challenged.

  • You don't have to be dead at 20 or 80 or 90!

  • Go for 100!

  • I just want to keep going. I wanna see what's over the next hill.

  • Thank you for watching Elders React.

  • Let us know in the comments what video we should react to next.

  • Help support the show by giving it a thumbs up!

  • Bye!

  • I'm going to go to a disco tonight!

  • ♪ (ragtime music) ♪

♪ (ragtime music) ♪

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it