103-year-old man will ballroom dance until he falls over
Karl Tinggaard, 103, is a dedicated ballroom dancer and spends every Thursday night showing off his moves.
Karl isn’t letting age slow him down and he has no plans to take a week from impressing his dancing partners at the Murray Heritage Center in Murray, Utah.
“I'm just an ordinary man who's had a long, wonderful life," the inspirational man said. “I can't remember one year in my life that was not wonderful."
Karl was born five months before World War I in 1914. He said he learnt his dancing moves growing up in Denmark and that now he just lets his feet follow the music when he steps on the dancefloor.
The program coordinator at the Murray Heritage Center Maureen Gallagher said, “He's a real pistol. He loves the women. It's really something because you can't think he's 103 and still moving so well."
Karl outlived his wife of 55 years and his daughter but he still strives to enjoy the beauty that life has to offer him.
"I don't have a dance partner anymore. I had one nine years," he said. "So she died. Then I had another dance partner three years and she died and so I said to myself, 'If they die from dancing with me, I might as well not have a partner.'"
Karl explained that his secret to living a long life and staying healthy is laughing.
"For every minute you laugh, you extend your life for one hour," he said. "And I am laughing a lot."
When asked how long Karl plans to keep up his ballroom dancing Karl said, “Until I fall over. Until I simply can't do it anymore.”
Karl is described by his fellow dancers as brightening up the dance floor and he is usually the first to arrive and the last person to leave the center.