Some of my high school teachers are on my Facebook friends list and I’m in awe of the incredibly active lives they live. Most of them are in their 70s and 80s and they go all over the world doing amazingly cool stuff. I just hope I’m that active at their age. What I don’t expect to see from them, however, is breakdancing and standing on their heads spinning around to “Uptown Funk.” Think about it: if someone told you that they saw a 60-year-old woman dancing to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars hit “Uptown Funk,” you’d probably picture a hella cool and hip teacher. But would you picture her dancing with as much vigor as athleticism as her students? Would you picture her breakdancing and standing on her head and spinning around?
Shirley Clements was getting ready to retire from her role at a Canadian high school and she decided to go out with a bang. At 60, Shirley is in better physical condition than many people half her age and it shows. When she’s dancing in the video below with her students, she literally doesn’t miss a beat. All of the moves they do, she does right along with them. It’s inspiring. Shirley is so fast and so slick that the video looks like it’s shot in fast motion, but it’s not. She’s just that energetic. I could barely grab screengrabs, she was moving so fast. They were all dancing together when suddenly, the students backed up and gave her the floor.
That’s when it got real. Everyone knew they were in for something special, but they probably had no idea what they were about to see. Then, a group of young male dancers came to the stage and began to dance with her, surrounding her and creating a semi-circle with her in the middle. At one point, they all got down on the floor, along with Shirley, and started making breakdance moves. Then, Shirley stood on her head, did the splits in the air, and rotated around and around on her head rapidly. It’s unbelievable and the crowd was going insane. Apparently, there’s some backstory here. Shirley herself started this annual competition nearly two decades ago.
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No one can say that Shirley went out with a pat on the back and a plaque. She gave it her all right up until the very end. Her performance will go down in the books as one of the top memories of all of the students who were there that day. Watch this unbelievable performance below.
