Ballerina and author Lisa Loree spoke with Presence News about Rebel Ballerina and why being told she should no longer dance did not stop her from continuing beyond 60.
Beverly Hills — At some point, many people are told they are too old to do something they love.
For ballerina and author Lisa Loree, that message involved dancing.
Loree was told that she should not be dancing anymore. She disagreed.
Instead of allowing someone else’s expectations to determine when her life as a dancer should end, Loree continued dancing — including after crossing 60 years old.
That experience is at the heart of Rebel Ballerina, a book Loree discussed with Presence News and Shane Vance at Soirée en Blanc, an event organized by Modern Day Wife at the Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2026.
Her story touches on a larger conversation that extends far beyond ballet: What happens when age begins influencing how other people perceive what someone should — or should not — still be doing?
For Loree, the response has been to keep dancing.
Ballet Has Centuries of Tradition
Loree’s decision to challenge expectations takes place within an art form built on centuries of tradition.
Ballet developed within European court culture before becoming increasingly formalized in France. King Louis XIV, himself an enthusiastic dancer, established the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661. The institution helped professionalize dance in France and contributed to the development of ballet as a formal art form.
Dance, theater and elaborate performances also played an important cultural and political role within Louis XIV’s court. The king famously appeared as Apollo in Ballet de la Nuit in 1653, helping establish the association between Louis XIV and the image of the “Sun King.”
Over the centuries that followed, ballet evolved dramatically, spreading internationally and developing into the highly technical performance art recognized today.
Yet one characteristic has remained particularly persistent: ballet is demanding on the human body.
Unlike a musician whose instrument exists separately from the performer, a dancer’s body is the instrument.
That reality has contributed to complicated conversations about aging and longevity within professional dance.
Ballet and the Question of Age
Professional ballet has traditionally placed considerable emphasis on youth.
The issue can begin before a dancer even has a professional career.
Some trainee and second-company programs have historically advertised upper age limits in the early 20s, while professional dancers have described feeling that age can affect how companies perceive their future potential.
Long professional careers certainly exist, but they are notable precisely because of how physically challenging maintaining an elite ballet career can be. Pointe has previously described professional careers extending 20 years or longer as relatively rare.
That does not mean dance itself has to end when a traditional professional career does.
And increasingly, dancers are challenging that assumption.
Dancers Are Challenging Ideas About Aging
In 2026, a new professional dance company brought the conversation surrounding age directly onto the stage.
WINN Dance was created for accomplished dancers over 40, bringing together veteran performers and explicitly challenging the notion that dance belongs primarily to the young.
Nora Kimball, a dancer who has performed with organizations including American Ballet Theatre, Nederlands Dans Theater and Ballet Frankfurt, was participating in the project at 69 years old.
The company’s founders have argued that although dancers’ physical capabilities change over time, maturity can bring different artistic qualities and experiences to a performance.
Other dancers have demonstrated similar longevity.
Former Houston Ballet principal Amy Fote returned to the stage at age 51 in 2024, a decade after retiring from performing. Discussing older dancers, Fote pointed to the maturity and depth that can develop with age.
Adult ballet also exists well beyond professional companies. Ballet classes, studios and dance communities allow people to continue participating at ages that would historically be considered unusual for an elite professional ballet career.
That changing landscape provides an interesting backdrop for Loree’s story.
Lisa Loree Became the ‘Rebel Ballerina’
Being told she should no longer dance could have represented an ending.
Loree instead turned the experience into something else.
The premise behind Rebel Ballerina challenges the idea that another person — or an arbitrary number — should determine when someone stops pursuing an activity that continues to bring purpose and meaning to their life.
Loree continued dancing as she entered her 60s.
In that sense, the “rebel” in Rebel Ballerina is not necessarily rebelling against ballet itself.
She is rebelling against an expectation.
It is an idea that can resonate outside the dance studio.
People encounter age expectations throughout their lives: when they should establish a career, when they should retire, what they should wear, where they should go and which ambitions are supposedly still appropriate for them.
Dance makes the question especially visible because movement is inherently physical.
A dancer cannot prevent the body from changing with age. But a changing body and an inability to dance are not necessarily the same thing.
For dancers who choose to continue, the goal may change. Technique may be adapted. Recovery may become more important. The reason for dancing may evolve.
The desire to dance can remain.
Dance After 60
There are practical differences between dancing at 20 and dancing at 60, and continuing to dance later in life does not require pretending those differences do not exist.
Valerie Diamond, a 62-year-old dancer in San Francisco, California interviewed by Pointe, for example, described challenges with stamina and jumping when returning to an in-person studio after an extended period of dancing at home. The publication’s guidance emphasized gradually and safely returning to movement rather than expecting the body to perform exactly as it once did.
That distinction is important.
Challenging age stereotypes does not require denying aging. Instead, it can mean recognizing that people are capable of adapting as they grow older.
For a dancer, experience can also bring something that youth cannot: decades of accumulated understanding of movement, performance and personal expression.
WINN Dance‘s emergence in 2026 illustrates how that idea is beginning to receive greater attention within the professional dance world. Its performers are not attempting to be younger versions of themselves. The project instead asks audiences to recognize what mature dancers can contribute at their current stage of life.
Loree’s story approaches that conversation from a deeply personal direction.
She was told to stop.
She chose to continue.
Lisa Loree Speaks With Presence News
Presence News had the opportunity to hear that story directly in Beverly Hills.
Shane Vance met Loree on camera in an interview during Soirée en Blanc, organized by Modern Day Wife at the Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2026.
During their conversation, Loree discussed Rebel Ballerina and the experience behind the book.
The interview offers viewers an opportunity to hear Loree explain her story in her own words and provides another example of what Presence News encountered throughout Soirée en Blanc: people sharing the experiences behind their creative and professional work.
Who Decides When It Is Time to Stop?
Ballet has changed considerably since the royal courts of Europe.
The stages have changed. The techniques have evolved. The people who are given opportunities to participate in dance continue to change as well.
The question raised by Rebel Ballerina is ultimately much simpler.
When someone still has the ability and desire to dance, should somebody else get to decide that they are too old?
Lisa Loree made her decision.
She kept dancing.
