At 91 John Lowe built his own trapeze and has three ballet classes a week, although he admits he can’t jump as high as some younger students.
John Lowe is flying through the air on a home-made trapeze at his bungalow. His stockinged legs are straight out behind him, his lips clamped in concentration. As he lands, he grins from ear to ear, a naughty, impish grin, as if having an audience is just the thing he thrives on. ‘The grandchildren love having a go on this, You can imagine. But my children have told me to slow up’. ‘They’ve forbidden me from doing 360-degree turns on it now. They’re worried that if I fall off, no one will find me. They’re probably right.’ It’s only natural that Lowe’s children urge him to take precautions during his ballet sessions. At 91, he is surely Britain’s oldest practising ballet dancer.Aside from the trapeze, there is a ballet bar lining one wall and roller skates in the corner. There are also photographs of his four children and 11 grandchildren, mementoes of his Second World War days, a painting of his adored wife Catherine who died suddenly 25 years ago, and the kind of high-backed chair that people favour in their advancing years. And the secret to his ballet dancing at 91? ‘I think because of my upbringing – two rooms, four families using one lavatory, no bathroom, my mother cooking in a 6ft square corridor, heading up and down two flights of stairs for water – that helped me to survive.’ ‘And, of course, being active. I go roller-skating in here round and round like a mouse in a cage. I move the furniture to do my ballet turns’. ‘I can get four in, if I cross the room diagonally’.
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