Tap dancer, 95, just 'can't give it up'
BBCA 95-year-old tap dancing teacher who dances every day says she "can't seem to give it up".
Joy Saunders, who celebrated her birthday on 19 May, has been tap dancing since she was eight years old and still teaches a class at Penzance YMCA each week.
Ms Saunders said she took up the dance as a child on the advice of medical professionals to help straighten her right ankle which was not level and because she "kept falling over".
She added while she had been forced to stop tap dancing at points in her life, she always got back to it "quite quickly" and could not imagine her life without it.
"Even now I can't seem to give it up..." Ms Saunders said.
"I can't visualise life without dancing, I just can't."
Ms Saunders said she preferred to teach tap dancing rather than performing in shows and had taught hundreds of pupils over the decades.
She added dancing had helped her through tough times during her life, including during World War Two.
"It was a break from everything else because it was all blackouts and you couldn't see where you were going," Ms Saunders said.
"We had little costumes which the teacher would make out of crepe paper and we would dance in the village hall."
Ms Saunders' current students said having her still teaching people at the age of 95 was "something special" and they did not think she would stop anytime soon.
Jan McCrory, who attends the weekly classes in Penzance, said: "She's got more energy than all of us.
"We call her 'One More Joy' because she's always saying 'just one more, just one more' and we're saying 'can't we just go and have a cup of coffee?'."
Fellow tap dancer Ann Lawrence added Ms Saunders was an inspirational person.
"I think it's special for everybody else to see the art of what's possible," she said.
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