Watch This 102-Year-Old See Herself Dance on Video for the First Time
April 22, 2015


For this week’s installment of #whynotwednesday, we’re going all sentimental on you. Alice Barker, now 102 years old and in a nursing home, was a chorus dancer in the 1930s and ’40s, dancing backup for the likes of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Frank Sinatra. But Barker had never been able to see video footage of herself dancing—until now, that is. Thanks to video editor David Shuff (who originally met Barker while visiting her nursing home) and the archival video collection of jazz film historian Mark Cantor, Barker got the chance to see her younger self shakin’ her groove thing. And lucky for us, the entire event is on video! Watch below.

P.S. If you want to send Barker fan mail, here’s where to send it: Alice Barker, c/o Bishop Henry B. Hucles Episcopal Nursing Home, 835 Herkimer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11233.

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