Legendary broadcaster Angela Rippon, 80, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing with Kai Widdrington, praised the impact dancing has on the body and spoke about what it could do for the NHS
Strictly Come Dancing star Angela Rippon says her ambition is to “die young” as “late as possible”.
The legendary newsreader, 80, said dancing into your later years will “help you” to achieve such an ambition as it keeps you in such good shape. She told the Dr Louise Newson Podcast: “You can do it at any age. It doesn’t matter what your age is or your physical condition – dance is the superpower.
“My ambition is to die young – as late as possible. And that’s what dance will help you to do. The body is a machine and like any machine it’s full of millions of moving parts and if you don’t look after it, it will seize up and rust. You have to keep it moving.”
She said that 1.6m people over 60 each year have a fall and “do damage to themselves”. The TV presenter said this means that “we could save the NHS up to £4 billion a year” with dance.
She added: “Think of dance as making an investment in your wellbeing pension plan.”
On using it as a treatment, she said: “It should be prevention always, rather than cure. If you can stop things before they happen then you don’t need expensive pharmaceuticals or hospital treatments. Dance is a miracle for people with Parkinson’s. Music helps them control their actions, improves their gait and improves their mobility.”
The star said that figures show that there are 153,000 people in the UK registered with Parkinson’s disease, adding that “50,000 of those get dance classes”. She said: “I want the other 103,000 to get dance classes.”
Angela, who became the oldest contestant to appear on Strictly when she took part in 2023 with professional dance partner Kai Widdrington, also said it’s “wonderful” to see how many young women work in TV nowadays.
She told the podcast: “To walk into any television studio and seeing the amount of women there are. The amount of male TV executives who have grown up not with the old boy’s network, but alongside women who are good at what they do.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
