Alice Barker was a chorus line dancer during the Harlem Renaissance who celebrated her 102nd birthday in early 2015. Alice Barker danced during the Harlem Renaissance, as well as in movies, TV, and commercials. Barker performed at venues such as the Apollo, the Cotton Club, and the Zanzibar Club, alongside greats including Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. Over time, Barker lost her old photos and no one could find videos of her dancing because of a misspelling of her name. David Shuff reunited Barker with her dancing videos, after contacting Mark Cantor, a collector of short musical films. Cantor also runs the online archive “Jazz on Film.” Shuff and Cantor later discovered that Barker’s dancing videos were filed under the last name “Baker,” which was why no one had previously been able to find them before. Barker had not previously seen herself dancing on film until 2015.

See Alice Barker’s interview here: