THE DANCE AT MITCHELL’S ISLAND HALL

 

In 1990 John Meredith and I recorded the Murray Brothers, Bert and Bob, at Burrell Creek NSW along with their sister, Kit Taylor. All were well known musicians in the area. 
Early the next year (1991) Ollie and I along with our kids had an amazing musical session at Taree with them and local fiddle and concertina player, Ernie Wells. I videoed segments of this session and it is now in our NLA collection.
We also recorded Kit’s son Peter and his wife, Dorothy doing some local variations of dances.
The people we record are not just numbers on a Library catalogue, they often become friends and this was the case with Peter and Dorothy Taylor. 
About five years ago Peter lamented that the old (unique) local dances were being forgotten and suggested that he gather a few of his dancing friends, teach them the dances and we could video them. Of course, the answer was YES. Covid and a few health issues intervened but Peter contacted me again earlier this year and the result was the dance we recorded at Mitchell’s Island Hall in August 2022.
You certainly don’t see a dance programme like this very often these days.
There’s always a story and this one is a bit long to tell here so the resulting video and complete story are up on our Verandah Music YouTube site, here
Many thanks to Peter and Dorothy for facilitating the dance, Ollie Willis and John and Maree Harpley for helping us record it for posterity.

Rob Willis

THE WEDDERBURN OLDTIMERS ON THE VERANDAH MUSIC CHANNEL

Vintage video of the Oldtimers in fine form on 1970s television! Lovingly edited by Rob Willis, you can join the proper old time dancing and the fun here..here...

The Wedderburn Oldtimers were amazingly popular back then, with two platinum and several gold LPs (Long Playing vinyl records) to their credit.

You can read all about it on the Peter Ellis Archives site where we’ve uploaded an account in which Peter recalls the history of the band and his involvement with it.

PETER ELLIS – HIS CONTINUING LEGACY

Readers of this blog will know that we also have a blog dedicated to the extensive collecting, research and performance of the late and much-missed Peter Ellis at http://peterellisarchive.blogspot.com.au/

Over at  www.australianfolkmusic.com.au, Richard Ayling and friends have provided two books on Peter’s work, along with a trove of other valuable information on musical traditions, available for free download. There is also a tribute section to the late Harry Gardner. 

WHAT BUSH DANCES?

Peter Ellis

Following on our recent dance posts, here’s one to stir the possum a little. We begin with a relevant reminiscence from Rob Willis, with links to a video of John Meredith and Ollie Willis lightfooting some Eureka Youth League dances. 

There is also a link to Rob’s edited version of the late Peter Ellis’s detailed discussion of this issue.  (NB Some issues with these historical file formats).

Comments welcome …

Rob writes:

I was born and raised in Forbes, Central West NSW, and in my youth during the 1960s went to dances in the many country halls that were scattered around the surrounding countryside. We learnt, mainly from the older women, how to waltz and also have fun with such dances as the Barn Dance, Pride of Erin, Jolly Miller and a raft of others.

I was therefore mystified in the late 1970s when becoming involved in the 'folk scene', going to so-called ‘bush dances’ (a term that was never used in the Central West) and being taught dances that I had never heard of in the bush. As time progressed and I started to travel on field recording trips with John Meredith (a good dancer in his own right) I met and formed a very strong friendship with dance historian, the late Peter Ellis. It became clear that ‘bush dance’ was a dance genre that had evolved over recent decades.

In conversations on the track with John and also with the people we were recording then for the National Library, some born in the 1890s, it became clear that the dances of the bush were in reality the Quadrilles, Polkas, Varsoviennas, Mazurkas as well as the later ones I had learnt in the Forbes district.

Over the many hours that Meredith and I had on the track talking about the past he explained how the genre was formed and Peter's article puts it all together as well as John's explanation in a video I shot of him and my wife, Ollie, demonstrating a couple of these dances.

I can remember being with Meredith and Alan Scott at a Bush Dance at a festival in Newcastle when Merro leaned over to Alan and said "Geez mate, just to think that we were responsible for this".