If you’ve ever wondered what could be done to make the lives of senior citizens better, then you may have stumbled on the benefits of music activities. Small musical activities can help reduce stress, refresh memories, and keep retirement communities together. But some communities take their musical activities one step further.
Retired special needs teacher Margaret Gregory, and a group of about 50 residents, staff, and grandchildren from Julia Wallace Retirement Village got together for their frame-by-frame version of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” And the results are extraordinary.
The video opens with a good stretch.
The video opens, much like Swift’s original music video, with a good stretch. Margaret and a few other elderly women stretch while the familiar beat plays. Margaret provides lip sync and keeps the pace and cheer with her winning smile.
The women in this scene are clearly having a good time and not letting their age keep them down.
But then the video cuts to…
Later in the video, Margaret and a team of senior men and women are outside wearing their best sweats and club gear. Every frame of Swift’s original video is captured, with some fun green screen effects for flips and handstands.
Margaret looks incredible as she lip syncs to the music with a style that makes this song her own.
Then the ballerinas show up.
One of the most fun and heartwarming parts of the video come when Margaret and the other seniors are dancing in ballerina tutus. The choreography is exquisite as these graceful ladies show their stuff.
But a bit of heartwarming comes when grandchildren join the fun. Hands are held and smiles are wide showing how much grandparents enjoy bringing the younger generation in on the action.
Group scenes show off tight choreography and smart use of space.
Even if these seniors make it look easy, you have to remember that these ladies don’t have studios and record label budgets. So they had to shoot the scenes using the retirement community space.
This is best showed off in the ‘gray room scene’ when the seniors dance along to Swift’s music. The smart use of space more than makes up for the smaller budget.
And then they show off with these cool and colorful shades.
But the real highlights of the video are…
Late in the video, two of the most enjoyable scenes arrive. First, we see Margaret and a few other ladies in leopard print coats shaking their hips side to side while using their walkers for balance.
Then we get an impressive wide shot featuring Margaret the seniors in a musical number that we’d expect to see on a concert stage.
A video this impressively fun had to take a while to make.
You might ask yourself, “How long did this video take to produce?” Well these retired seniors were able to do it in one week.
When asked about the challenge, Margaret said:
“It was just gorgeous fun – we’ve never done anything like it,”
It was also gorgeous fun to watch.
Check out the video below to see this incredible take on Taylor Swift!
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