Recently a video went viral on the Internet, with more than 30 million hits. Let’s see what it is:

You ain’t got a thing unless you got that swing!

Alice Barker was born on July 30, 1912 in New York, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Legs Ain’t No Good (1942). She died on April 6, 2016 in Brooklyn, New York. See full bio:

Born:

July 30, 1912 in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Died:

April 6, 2016 (age 103) in Brooklyn, New York, USA

(As of April 2015) Alice Barker is alive at 102 and living in a nursing home.
Received a letter from the White House on her 103rd birthday in 2015.
Alice died in her sleep after having a good time the day before.
In April of 2013, a video was uploaded to Youtube which featured 102 year old Alice, who was living in a nursing home, seeing her filmed dancing scenes for the first time. The video went viral, and as of June, 2020, it has been viewed more than twenty-eight-million times. (And as of today, August 2021, 34 million times)
She also danced in numerous movies, commercials and TV shows with legends including Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Gene Kelly, and a young Frank Sinatra.
For her entire career she worked as a chorus line dancer in New York City, on Broadway and during the Harlem Renaissance of the the 1930s and 40s. She danced at clubs such as The Apollo, Cotton Club, and Zanzibar Club, where she was part of a legendary group known as the Zanzibeauts.
She was born in Chicago, and left for New York City to become a dancer in her mid 20’s-which was quite a bold move for a woman in her time.

Time Magazine tells how this video came about

Key points to anybody’s meaning and purpose of life from Alice Baker’s life:

Asked how many years she danced during that time, Barker touched her hand to her chest and replied, “Oh, that’s all I ever did.” “That was it,” she said.

“Making me wish that I could get out of this bed and do it all over again,” Barker said when asked how she felt while watching the footage.

Alice said it was in her blood. Alice was an only child raised by a single mother.  She did not know her father.  She began dancing around the house, as she told the story, as a tiny tot, naked, to music.

“My mother told me she was getting ready to bathe me, and on the corner was a band playing,” she says. “She had forgotten something, and she went back in the house to get it. And when she came [back], I was gone, and I was down there naked, just going, dancing. And I can see me down there [now], naked, just dancing. And then if the band would stop playing, I’d look at them and say, ‘Come on, let’s get it going!'”

As it was told by

and I quote:

Alice also told the stories of discrimination still having to go through the side doors and not getting paid what the white dancers received performing in 8 shows a day. But Alice said it was worth it because each time you danced at an all-white club you would open doors for other black dancers and she would say that with a wink.

Alice was married to a well-known drummer named Wallace Bishop. They had no children. She told the story of how when she came on stage “he played a different beat”. And that’s how she knew he liked her.

Alice was a woman ahead of her time.  She said Wallace became jealous of her career and wanted her to stop dancing and have children.  Alice said she chose her career and left the marriage.  Soon after, she was the first black woman to dance on television with Frank Sinatra.

Alice believed that everyone has a gift.  She said, “It’s up to you to find it and tap into it and you will live a meaningful life”.  Like she did. This is the reason I searched for years for her films.

I found her name on a soundies’ site with other black chorus girls’ names.  Dave, my friend for years,  a filmmaker and a friend of Alice, contacted Alicia Meyers, a researcher who made a film about black chorus girls.  She informed us that everyone knew Alice as “Chicken Little” and thought she was dead.

Dave contacted Mark Cantor, an historian who gave Dave the films.  We all met at the nursing home and brought Alice the video to watch herself dancing.  It was the first time I saw the video, but more important, it was the first time Alice had seen herself on film.  Her reaction was amazing.  We put it on YouTube and it went viral in hours!  Alice was a star again!

People from around the world, including Beyoncé and President Obama, saw it and responded to it.  The Harlem Swing Dancers came to the nursing home and performed for her. Flowers and letters poured in.  It all touched her life so much. She would say, “They know me and they care about me”.

Sometimes when I would read her a card or letter you could see the tears of joy and she would tell me where to place each card and letter on her walls. She wanted to see every card every day.

She said, “There’s a reason for me to live to be 103 and this is it”.  So many people touched Alice’s life but the greatest thing of all is how Alice touched so many lives. People saw her beauty, grace, smile and passion and love for life and dance.

Alice touched my life, I miss her but she will remain in my heart forever. Alice’s words of wisdom were: “Live your life like the Beatles song, ‘Don’t worry about anything. Let it be’.”

 “I used to often say to myself, I am being paid to do something that I enjoy doing, and I would do it for free because it just felt so good doing it because that music you know? I get carried away in it.“