Move And Groove At The Masonic Hall

Old time and new vogue sequence dancing is held on the ground floor of the Masonic Building in Wood Street every Wednesday morning from 9:00am to 12:00pm and every Friday night from 7:00pm to 10:30pm.

Sequence dancing involved all dancers performing the same steps at the same time around the dance floor.

There are hundreds of dances done throughout Australia with the Mackay group doing around 60 of those.

President Alex Dawson has been dancing for nearly 30 years and emcees the program twice weekly.

“(Attendees) get a chance to socialise, and they all enjoy dancing so they get to do the dancing,” he said.

“The age group is getting fairly high, and you can see how dancing is good for you because we’ve got some nearly 90-year-olds here and everyone’s getting up and dancing.”

Mr Dawson says the number of attendees is dropping.

“Everyone’s just getting older and young people aren’t coming through,” he said.

On Wednesday mornings, the music is provided by a four-piece band including drums, piano and tenor and alto saxophones.

Pianist Olive Leet has been playing piano at dances since she was eight years old.

“It keeps me off the streets,” she laughed.

“I love it.”

Dancer Anne Kelly says dancing is a lot of fun and Masonic Dancing provides a friendly atmosphere to learn.

“It’s a great hobby to keep you fit, improve your memory, balance and coordination,” she said.

A six-week lesson block was recently held to introduce newcomers to the dancing scene and the group is looking to hold another one block of lessons if there is sufficient interest.

To register your interest in learning to dance, contact Kevin on 0417 326 634.

All dancers are looking forward to the chance to dress up for the Spring Ball, held tonight, Friday, September 2 at the Masonic Hall from 7:00pm.

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