Living to 102 years old don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing.
Just ask Alice Barker, who recently celebrated her 102nd birthday. Though she now lives at a nursing home, Barker was a famous dancer during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s. She appeared in films, television and commercials, and even danced on the same stage as Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.
“It just felt so good doing it,” Barker says in the video above. “Because that music -- I just get carried away in it.”
Yet, somehow, Barker had never seen footage of herself in action.
Until now. Jazz on Film’s Mark Cantor and David Shuff uncovered three “soundies” –- short musical videos –- of Barker shimming and swaying across the stage. They presented the footage to Barker in her nursing home bedroom.
When asked how it felt to see herself dancing, Barker replied, “Making me wish I could get out of bed and do it all over again.”
