Getting happy on exercise

Motivated by her background and a desire to improve people’s wellbeing, 72-year-old Li Sha started doing exercise and dance sessions outside the Melbourne Museum 13 years ago. For many who have joined in, the experience has been life changing.

When Li Sha was in primary school in Beijing she was selected for elite level ballet training.

Like Li Cunxin, the author of the memoir Mao’s Last Dancer, she was sent to Madame Mao’s dance academy.

For 10 years from the age of eight Sha lived and studied at the military-run school.

She loved dancing but it was very hard, she says. The discipline was extreme and her feet bled.

At the age of 18 she left and wouldn’t dance again for decades.

Instead, Sha got into television, working in the industry until the early 1990s, when her marriage broke down and she decided to bring her young daughter to Australia, where her sister already lived.

In 1994 she arrived with a thousand American dollars, ready to start a new life.

But with little English it wasn’t easy.

For many years she worked as a cleaner, doing very long hours – from six in the morning to six in the evening every day.

Then, when she was 58, she slipped on a wet floor while cleaning a shopping centre and seriously injured her arm.

After surgery, which included the insertion of a metal pin, Sha was put on a disability pension.

The government told me, “no working, go home,” she says.

“But I like working. I don’t want to stay home long time.”

After two years out of action, she needed to get out.

Taking a portable speaker, she set herself up outside the Melbourne Museum and started running through a graceful, rhythmic exercise and dance routine she had created.

Set to “beautiful music”, it incorporated “forward and back marching aerobics”, hand-gripping, arm-swinging and tiptoe movements, which Sha says offer a host of benefits – for joints, balance, core strength, reaction time, peripheral nerves, blood circulation and overall “relaxation and vitality”.

Later, she added shoulder and neck routines.

For three months Sha did the routine by herself, untroubled by shyness because of her experience as a dancer.

Then two people joined in, and another, then four, then five, then eight, she says.

Sha knew outdoor exercise sessions, which are common in parks across China, were good for mental health, and she would smile and call out to people, “come and follow me! After, you go home happy!’”.

The museum, meanwhile, was supportive.

Sharon Benton came across the group 10 years ago when she was recovering from breast cancer.

Like a lot of the mainly older women who take part, she had been advised to exercise by her doctor and found the public sessions a great option.

“This is a process where you’re not doing any damage, you can do it to your own capacity and you can come and go as you like,” she says.

“You also meet a lot of ladies, have a bit of a chat and it keeps you going.”

Sharon, who helps leads the sessions, used to come every day until Sha cut them back to three times a week after COVID.

She says the practice has been good for her concentration, balance and memory and she has lost her previous aches and pains.

“I just don’t know how I’d go without it,” she says.

CBD resident Colleen O’Brien feels the same way.

She was drawn into the group because it was on her regular walk circuit.

“People would say, ‘come, come and join us!’”.

Five years on, Colleen is clear about the significant health benefits she has experienced.

“I did Pilates as well but this feels like something delightful to do.”

One of her sisters also comes to the sessions and Colleen catches up at them with some neighbours who she would never see otherwise.

Altogether Li Sha has 84 participants’ names on a list she keeps for insurance purposes.

Between 25 and 40 of them usually turn up to each session, travelling from Carlton, Kew, Docklands, Ascot Vale and as far away as Sunshine to attend.

Although Sha used to live in the nearby public housing towers, these days she comes from an apartment in Southbank that her daughter bought for her downstairs from her own.

After a lot of hard times, the past 13 years have seen the music and dance lover really hit her stride, sharing her “joyful energetic fitness routine” widely.

“I’m really happy, I want to help everyone,” the fit and healthy 72-year-old says.

And she hopes to continue for many more years.

“Because for myself [also] it’s very important.” •