• Footscray, Yarraville, Braybrook Star

By Alesha Capone

27th July 2010 11:06:12 AM

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Make mine mambo… 89-year-old Jessie Dennis, pictured with Bill Pepper, has been a member of the Ballroom Dancing Lauralee Dancers group for more than two decades. 50449 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT

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MEMBERS of a Maribyrnong ballroom group have been dancing through the decades, since their club began 25 years ago in Deer Park.

The Ballroom Dancing Lauralee Dancers gather every week at the Maribyrnong Community Centre to foxtrot, tango, rumba, waltz and mambo, among other styles.

Secretary Florence Beard said the “friendly atmosphere” and mix of cultures meant 70 to 90 people from as far away as Sunshine and Hoppers Crossing attended every dance session.

Ms Beard began dancing lessons when she was 14 for the cost of threepence.

“Once rock ‘n’ roll came in during the fifties, it took over, which is why younger people don’t do this sort of dancing,” she said.

The longest-serving member of the Ballroom Dancing Lauralee Dancers, Jessie Dennis, has been with the group since they began.

The senior citizen said the dancers started meeting at the Deer Park Imperial Chemical Industries site during 1984.

“We had an old gramophone with records on it, and then we got modern and had a tape deck, and then CDs,” Ms Dennis said.

The 89-year-old Braybrook resident and her husband danced up until his death four years ago, and now she dances with her friends.

“There’s not many weeks I’ve missed, unless it has been due to sickness. I love dancing, so I’m hanging in there,” she said.

“I enjoy the exercise and you feel alive. It keeps the mind and body active.”

The great-grandmother said she met her husband at a dance, just like Alby and Bobbie Speed from Burnside.

The husband and wife, who have been with the Lauralee Dancers for more than two decades, met at a dance in Yarraville in 1946.

However, they said ballroom dancing was no longer as popular as when they were young.

“Unfortunately, we’re a dying breed,” Mrs Speed said.

The Ballroom Dancing Lauralee Dancers meets on Tuesdays, Thursdays and the first and third Saturday of each month at a cost of $3 per session. Contact the Maribyrnong Community Centre on 9318 6655 for more information.

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