After over two decades in the contemporary lexicon (and approximately two centuries of historical context), twerking (or as us oldsters used to call it, “booty-popping”) is proving to be as enduring and evolutionary as hip-hop itself. So much so, many of us who grew up with the dance are now technically years closer to being senior citizens than sexy young thangs poppin’ that stuff—but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying.
Inspired by the recent runaway success of City Girls’ “Twerk”—featuring the relatively unknown Cardi B—choreographer Radha Ruiz brought the ongoing craze (thankfully snatched back from the likes of Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea) to a Los Angeles-based group of senior women for a demonstration in “how to get flewed out.”
The results? Pretty adorable—especially the fully choreographed and costumed reenactment of the video (complete with poles and lip-synching). Check it out—and try to not bop/rap along.
But while it’d be easy to play this off as a parody strictly made for laughs, these women looked like they were legitimately having fun; the kind of fun we hope we’re still having decades from now. In short, this shit was inspiring as hell.
For all of us waiting for better days ahead—you know, when we’re thinner, or fitter, or less busy (I know it’s not just me)—the time is now, and the key to a happy life is clearly to let all the self-consciousness go and use those hips as long as they’re still functional (after all, they say if you don’t use ‘em, you lose ‘em).
And for those of you afraid of being the “old [lady] in the club,” I’m just going to refer you to “Disco Sally,” the New York City attorney who was one of Studio 54's regulars at age 77—and ended up marrying a twentysomething, in the process (h/t Guest of a Guest).
Okay, so maybe those aren’t our exact aspirations for old age, but staying limber and fly certainly are, so why not twerk our way into it? It’s also worth noting that Ruiz isn’t the first to bring twerking to an older generation; remember this now-viral video from 2015?
The moral? While twerking may seem a young woman’s game, chances are she got it from her mama—and you’re never too old to get flewed out.