A group of retirees has done its own take on Taylor Swift's Shake It Off video, adding only the occasional local, and age-appropriate, touches such as frenetic cupcake dusting.
The 50 residents from a New Zealand retirement village spent a week learning the words and moves, and their attempt has now been rewarded with tens of thousands of views online.
Staff from the facility in Palmerston North and grandchildren made cameos in the video, but the stars are the residents themselves – with the average age of the dancers being 82 (combined aged 4,000).
“Just because we’re in a retirement village, doesn’t mean we can’t have fun,” said Margaret Gregory ( 72), who was cast as Swift in the video. “We still have life and energy, and sometimes I feel I do more now than when I was younger, because I have more time.”
The footage mimics the original Shake It Off music clip almost shot for shot, including costumes (stitched by a village resident), dance moves and props.
However the village residents added in some local touches – including scenes of asparagus rolls being vigorously constructed, cupcake dusting and, right at the end, the New Zealand Swift being helped off the floor by her granddaughter.
The Swift video is not the first attention-grabbing outing for the residents of Julia Wallace. In 2015 they produced a nude calendar to raise funds for the Red Cross, and in 2014 their sister village in Christchurch did a flash mob rendition of Pharrell Williams’s Happy at the local shopping centre. – (Guardian Service)
