Noel Hume started his working life as a cabinetmaker, but soon discovered the joys of dancing.
So he gave up his trade, and he and wife Jan started dance classes across Melbourne’s west.
They still teach tango in Sunshine … by Alexandra Laskie
You and Jan are Australian ballroom dancing champions, and are now in your early 80s, but you still take classes in Sunshine. Any chance of slowing down?
I have been teaching in Sunshine for about 10 years, but prior to that, over the past 20 to 25-odd years, I have run 11 venues each week in the western suburbs, from Tullamarine to Bacchus Marsh and Werribee.
Now semi-retired, I am conducting free classes to keep up my skills and for friends who … wish to keep up theirs.
What are your most vivid memories of Sunshine when you first started in the ’50s?
Most of my memories are of Keilor Park, where I now live.
Keilor was just another country town along the way.
When I first moved to what is now Keilor Park, it was just paddocks as far as the eye could see and one could take the dogs out in the fields and get a few rabbits for the table … mushrooms galore.
When did you move west, and why?
Possibly in the late ’60s; basically it was cheap and 10 minutes to my cabinet-making business in Mount Alexander Road in Essendon, where I trained the first female cabinet maker in Australia in 1975 (Bronwyn Woodward).
The business ran for some 19 years.
Then I started to teach country and western dancing, which was coming on hot at the time.
As that started to wane, I moved to running ballroom dance classes and socials, covering all styles of dance that were popular, and have continued ever since.
What styles of dance do you teach, and how did you originally get into dancing?
I originally got into dancing when someone took me to a studio where they learnt in the city; simply every one learned to dance as it was the way one socialised in those days.
Every town, masonic hall or above shop floor space seemed to have a social dance running, sometimes up to three times weekly.
I stopped dancing for a period from 1966 to start a business, but returned to dancing in 1978, dancing in a new section reserved for over 35s, and created a record for that time, winning every modern competition from 1978 to 1981, bar one.
What do you think sets the west apart?
You meet real people, who work hard, with no airs or graces.
What are your favourite local eateries?
Well, I usually go where I am invited … every friend has their own favourite
