--- description: Filmmakers find footage of 102-year-old Alice Barker dancing during the 1930s and '40s and visit her nursing home to show her. title: 102-Year-Old Watches Herself on Film as a Young Jazz Dancer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch This 102-Year-Old as She Looks at Old Footage of Herself as a Young Jazz Dancer by [Helen Regan](/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 22, 2015 4:11 AM CUT by [Helen Regan](/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 22, 2015 4:11 AM CUT Alice Barker, now age 102, was a chorus-line dancer during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s and ’40s and danced with legends including Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. She danced in many movies, commercials and TV shows but had never seen herself on film. With the help of Mark Cantor of [Jazz Film](http://jazz-on-film.com "undefined") and [David Shuff](http://davidshuff.com/ "undefined"), researchers managed to dig up three “soundies” — the music videos of the day — that Barker appeared in and were able to go to her nursing home and show her the incredible footage for the very first time. “It makes me wish I could get out of this bed and do it all over again,” she says. _Read next:_ [_Queen Elizabeth Turns 89 As She Awaits Fifth Great-Grandchild_](http://time.com/3830466/queen-elizabeth-turns-89/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3830855/old-dancer-see-on-film-first-time-alice-barker/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3830855/old-dancer-see-on-film-first-time-alice-barker/"},"headline":"Watch This 102-Year-Old as She Looks at Old Footage of Herself as a Young Jazz Dancer","datePublished":"2015-04-22T04:11:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:18:58.693Z","description":"This is beautiful and amazing","url":"https://time.com/3830855/old-dancer-see-on-film-first-time-alice-barker/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","viral","frank sinatra","film","dancing"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3830855/old-dancer-see-on-film-first-time-alice-barker/","name":"Watch This 102-Year-Old as She Looks at Old Footage of Herself as a Young Jazz Dancer"}}]}] ```