In 2016 I left my full-time staff job as a digital magazine editor to go freelance. And, finally freed from a 9-to-5 routine, trapped behind a desk, I thought gleefully – what else can I do with my days?

Maybe I’ll become a dancer…

I wasn’t the most obvious candidate to join a dance troupe – at the age of, er, well let’s just say I’ll never see 40 again. I have arthritis and scoliosis and spent half of the last decade on crutches. Sometimes I groan out loud when I stand up.

But I was joining the dance group for just a few weeks. It was a love affair, not a commitment. We were going to perform a dance choreographed by one of the world’s leading dancers, a man who provokes hushed silences in those-who-know-about-dance when you mention his name.

Akram Khan. (Look around, anyone nearby frozen into silence? Dancer!)

Want to impress a dancer? Tell them you’re dancing an Akram Khan piece.

Khan devised a dance routine for Big Dance Festival, which ran across the UK from May 20 to September 10 that year and learning this dance was open to all – from community groups to professional dance troupes. (You can probably guess which one I was part of). It was devised for people of all abilities and suitable even for those with limited movement as you could perform the dance standing up or sitting down. I did manage to stand up while taking part, that being a crutch-free year.

We performed it on the Big Dance stage at the Addiscombe festival in Ashburton Park in May that year, at the Park Hill Park Family Fest in June and in London’s Trafalgar Square in July.

But the most exciting performance of all was dancing with over 30 others outside London’s City Hall for the then newly elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and for the main man himself – yes, I got to dance Akram Khan’s dance for AKRAM KHAN!

We danced in the sunshine in view of Tower Bridge, press photographers clicking furiously, TV cameras filming – we were on the BBC London news that night. And for that morning, we were all dancers, no matter what the state of our hips or our knees or our ankles. Okay so a few of us were slightly OLDER than the majority of the young whippersnappers bending gracefully – but who cares, we could do the dance and we did it, over and over again to the beautiful music composed by Nitin Sawhney.

Akram Khan’s beautiful dance explores the themes of identity, connection and hope. It was a dance that was conceived to unite people and embrace diversity. And there is a wonderful energy created by a random group of strangers coming together for a short time, to work in harmony and dance together. As Akram Khan said, ‘people from all walks of life connect here to communicate the joy and celebration of their body’. And, joints creaking, we celebrated joyfully.

Four years on, I look back on my time as a dancer fondly, particularly now, when we’re all apart, desperately needing that connection and hope. Once all this is over, and we can unite again, maybe l’ll dust off my dancing shoes. Akram will be delighted.