This 87-year-old ballerina has dedicated her entire career to raising the bar for Philadelphia’s young black dancers

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For more than 60 years, Joan Meyers Brown has been teaching aspiring dancers the art of ballet in her native Philadelphia. Everyday, the 87-year-old ballerina oversees hours of choreography lessons, but that's not all.

Mrs. Brown is a dance legend, having founded the internationally-acclaimed Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco) in 1970 to ensure that all black dancers have the same opportunities.

She's even been awarded the National Medal of Arts by former President Barack Obama.

Brown has danced alongside Pearl Bailey and Sammie David and doesn't plan on stopping being involved in dance anytime soon.

"From 1970 to now, we’re still dancing," Brown says with a smile.

"I don’t want to be an old bore, but I want to stay involved as long as I can .. as long as it’s helping somebody, then I’m happy about that."

Watch this inspiring episode of "Lifers" in the video above.

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