07/23/2026
Adults, stop making excuses! Get in for dance class because you DESERVE to prioritize yourself! The new schedule goes live on our website tomorrow morning.🥳💜🦋
Yoko Morish*ta was 3 years old when she first put on a pair of ballet shoes.
Seventy-five years later, she’s still en pointe.
Morish*ta, who will turn 78 in December, is the prima ballerina in Japan’s storied Matsuyama Ballet Company. One of Japan’s most-celebrated dancers, she performed with Rudolf Nureyev 200 times and toured with Margot Fonteyn.
Today, she is the world’s oldest ballerina still taking on demanding lead roles. In January, she starred as Odette and the black swan Odile in “Swan Lake” and in May she performed “Coppelia.” She is currently rehearsing for her role as Clara in “The Nutcracker” in November, a part she has played for 45 years.
Being the principal dancer of a renowned ballet company would be taxing for a dancer half her age. Few ballet stars make it past 40 before hanging up their pumps and switching to teaching, overcome by the immense physical, mental and artistic demands of the art form.
Morish*ta said her secret is simple: She lives for ballet and rarely thinks beyond the next day’s rehearsal or performance.
“Once today is over, I think about tomorrow’s lesson,” she said. “Before I knew it, 75 years had passed.”
🩰 Read more: https://wsj.visitlink.me/roLzJt
