An 88-year-old man is set to star in his first ballet show after taking up dance at the age of 79.

Grandfather to 11, John Lowe, of Witchford, Cambs, took up dancing having watched his daughter Alison become a professional dancer.

The retired teacher said: "It's a wonderful thing to do and I can't understand why more men don't do it."

Mr Lowe is due to appear with the Lantern Dance Theatre Company, in Ely, on Sunday evening.

Pirouettes have been perfected in daily practice at home ahead of Mr Lowe's performance in Prokofiev's The Stone Flower at The Maltings.

'Incredibly fit'

"I went to a dance school in the high street in Ely and asked if I could do tap and ballet and they said 'well of course you can' and I've been doing it ever since," Mr Lowe said.

"I've got a rope at home that I use to pull my leg up higher. I'm lucky that I don't have any problem with the routines but that's because I exercise.

"There's nothing effeminate about it - you have to be incredibly fit to dance.

"I see these people crawling around , hunched over smoking a cigarette - they should be doing ballet."

Story from - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/7185908.stm