Maybe this is what those fans meant when they said they "miss the old Taylor Swift." Old as in, the historical era of 2014, when we were all watching "Shake It Off" multiple times a day. Well, Swift might be preoccupied with personal matters at the moment, so instead, we bring you the ladies and gentlemen of the Julia Wallace Retirement Village in Palmerston North, New Zealand. It is guaranteed to bring you almost as much joy as if Swift herself arrived in your home to perform it for you.
This version is impressively faithful to the original, down to the costumes and green-screen effects — with a few original scenes, such as a cooking class, which looks hella fun. It's also more poignant. One can assume that these dancers, whose average age is 82 according to the YouTube description, have had a lot more to shake off than a 26-year-old pop star.
“Just because we’re in a retirement village doesn’t mean we can’t have fun," 72-year-old Margaret Gregory, who plays Swift in the video, told The Guardian. "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 video is a creation of 80-oddyearsofhappy.com, which has been making other clips that are changing the way we think of life in a retirement home. It's a pretty good antidote for whatever 2016 brings us next.