They call themselves the Harlem Honeys and Bears, a group of synchronized swimmers who are from 55 to 97 years old. For them, swimming serves as elixir, a way to hold the aches and pains at bay.  

“You’re a senior citizen but you don’t feel like a senior citizen when you get in the water. You feel young,” says Jane Bartholomew, 78.

The group started 40 years ago. It has 30 members, nearly all of them African-American. Some have been swimming most of their lives; others learned in retirement.

“I did not know how to swim at all,” says team member Lettice Graham.

“I was like, 'synchronized swimming? What’s that?'” adds Aaron Mitchell.

Practicing as much as three times a week, they’ve learned not only how to swim, but to choreograph their movements, creating routines they take on the road to competitions.

Team captain Monica Hale joined nine years ago to cope with health problems and the death of her daughter.

She says she’s been swimming since she was a child – but now she says she feels like Esther Williams, the competitive swimmer-turned-actress who many of the Honeys in the Harlem Honeys and Bears look up to. Williams made movies in the 1940s that featured elaborate sychronized swimming routines. 

“I always just wanted to go in the water and do that thing she does - she goes backwards and with her knee up. And now I’m doing it. It feels so good,” Hale says.

Almost as good as breaking stereotypes and spreading the word about the importance of swimming. Studies have shown African-Americans are less likely to swim and more likely to drown than whites.

“How many African-Americans do you know that swim - never mind kick their legs up and do ballet moves in the water,” Hale says. “This is our chance to showcase our community. Not only are we seniors. We’re African-American seniors – in the water.”

The team has cleaned up at senior synchronized swimming competitions across the state. While that’s a big deal to members, they feel it's even more important to show that life has many more strokes ahead of it.

“You’re a senior. But it’s not the end, it’s a new beginning,” says Hale.

A new beginning, for swimmers showing some very young moves in the pool.