Welcome to the Club: Everyone is welcome at River Rockers Whanganui

Kath Mence and Shane Greenlees have been dance partners at the club for more than 30 years. Photo / Bevan Conley

In the latest in our Welcome to the Club series Mike Tweed finds out more about the fancy footwork at River Rockers Whanganui.

Every Wednesday night the Zen Do Kai freestyle martial arts building in Trafalgar Place is taken over by scores of dancing feet and the sounds of the biggest hits from the 1950s and 60s.

It's the venue for River Rockers Whanganui's weekly sessions.

The rock 'n' roll dance club began in a Whanganui garage in 1987, and current president Donna Burns joined six months later.

"It was through my daughter really, who was 8 at the time," Burns said.

"Once she got to about 14 she said 'nah', but I wanted to keep going. I kept on and after 11 years my husband started, and he and his dance partner were the first ones to put Whanganui on the map with a win at the New Zealand Nationals.

"Me and Gill Potaka Osborne are the only two originals left, and I've been president for 25 years plus."

Originally called Whanganui Rock and Roll Revival, then Whanganui Rock and Roll Club, the club has been called River Rockers Whanganui for the past two years, after Burns said they needed "a bit of an uplift".

"We had a vote on it and out came River Rockers Whanganui."

Burns said the Wednesday night sessions were dedicated to beginner and intermediate-level dancers, and anyone was welcome to come along and give it a go.

"Our youngest member would probably be 6, and our oldest is 74.

"You stay in beginners for six weeks, where you learn the basics. You've got to get that foundation.

"From there you go up to intermediate where you learn a few turns and some different moves. The next step is the advanced class, and that's where things like jumps start coming into play. There's straddles, flies and all sorts of jumps you can do.

"Then you can start entering competitions."

The New Zealand Nationals were held every year, Burns said, with the River Rockers having their club championships every July.

"We also enter the CCU [Capital City United] competition, which is all Wellington, but they invited us to be involved too. We've taken a few titles from there, which is cool.

"At the senior Nationals, we usually enter couples, triples, and hopefully a senior and a top team with six people on each. Triples is two guys and one girl, and that is really awesome to watch.

"We travel north to south, and there are hundreds of rock 'n' rollers around the country who treat each other like family. Even within our club, there have been hundreds of people who have come through and learned rock 'n' roll.

"It's good fun, it's really good fun."

And what is the very first move you learn in your first lesson?

"That would be the six-step," Burns said.

"You've got to learn that first, you've got to learn your basics. It's no good coming in and saying 'I just want to learn the jumps'."

Donna Burns says "the six-step" is the first move you learn in beginner classes. Photo / Bevan Conley

Asked if rock 'n' roll dancing involved any waltzing, Burns said "hell, no".

"We dance to Elvis, Richie Valens, The Big Bopper, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee [Lewis]. All the classics, really."

The club had around 70 members at present, Burns said, but a lot of non-members also came along to give it a shot.

"We're a family club, and we really encourage whole families to come along.

"Me personally, I've done three Nationals, but I'm not very competitive. My husband is very competitive though, so I don't dance with him in competitions. He's a perfectionist.

"I like the promotion side of the club, and organising trips away and all that sort of thing."

Two other long-time members of the club are treasurer Scott Greenlees and Kath Mence, who have been dance partners in Whanganui for more than 30 years.

"I started when I was 19 and I'm 52 now, so that's quite a long time," Greenlees said.

"Kath and I have been partners for that whole time too, maybe because she's the only one who can put up with me."

Mence said the pair had won "a few titles" over the years, both locally and nationally.

"We love it, and it just becomes a part of life," Mence said.

"I grew up with rock 'n' roll with my mum, and that's why I joined the club. It's everything really, the dancing, the music, and keeping active and fit."

The New Zealand Senior Nationals will be held in Whanganui in October at the War Memorial Centre, with the next major event being the 2021 Downer Masters Games in Whanganui in February.

For more information on River Rockers Whanganui, call Donna Burns on (06) 343 9554 or email riverrockerswhanganui@gmail.com