Old Time Dancing in MIldura
May 19th, 2007 | by lissie |We arrived in Mildura and headed to the Visitors Information Centre - to pick up the generally excellent local maps and info they all hand out for free. Under the “local attractins” stand I found a flyer for Old Time Friday Night Dance, checked with Paul’s sophisticated watch and established that today was in fact Friday! So dug the dance shoes from deep, deep in the bowels of the landcruiser and headed off. We new some of the “old time” dances i.e. Merrilyn, Tracey-Leigh, Charmaine, Barclay Blues etc. (AndAngela I now know what you mean when you say they do some odd stuff - though I thought the kicks in parma waltz could actually be an improvement! And don’t even ask about the solo turns in Barclay Blues!) We now know some others too like the Mayfair Quickstep and the Balmoral Blues thanks to some patient locals - I’m sorry you guys just do the locks in the wrong place! Saw a curious thing though - Angela you might know the answer to this - they did a lot of sequence waltzs but at (ballroom) English Waltz time not at the faster New Vogue or Old Time speeds. They were very pretty but hard to pick up because they turned alot - like a waltz really - and some were really complex with heel turns pivots and fall aways (all done with no technique at all of course!). Do these happen in NZ I could almost be interested? They also had rumbas, chas and even a jive. Some of the names in case they ring any bells are: Alpha waltz, autumn mist, Victor Harbour all slow waltzs, Sally Ann Cha and the Rhumba One.
