 |
| Greased lightning . . .
rock'n'rollers Diane Green, of Dutton Park, and Rafino
Peoples, of Chermside, warm up before leaping into the
state title during the Queensland Rock'n'Roll
Championships at Cloudland on June 5, 1957.
Still young – Rafino Peoples at 71
. . . "You're not going to use that photo of me, are
you?" |
|
Kicking the chandelier
The sprung floor was wasted on waltzers when Cloudland
became Loudland, writes Catriona Matthewson.
IN 1957 the sedate waltzers at Cloudland
Ballroom in Brisbane were overrun by a crazy bunch of kids who
danced like they had ants in their pants and flung their
partners high in the air.
More than 40 years later Rafino Peoples, 71, still
remembers the night like it was yesterday. "You're not going
to use that photo of me up in the air with my mouth wide open
are you?" he laughed from his home at Willawong on Brisbane's
southside. 'Fraid so, Rafino.
This picture was on the front page of The Courier-Mail
back then. At the time "Rubber Legs" Rafino, 27, and his
partner Diane Green were competing in the Queensland
Rock'n'Roll Championships.
They won the competition and went on to take the national
title with none other than Johnny O'Keefe providing the
backing music.
Although he has lost touch with his dance companion, Rafino
said Diane was the perfect partner.
"She was like a cat — no matter which way you threw her she
landed on her feet. We did have our mishaps of course. In that
photo I think you can see Diane had a bandage on her foot."
The high-energy, acrobatic dance also had its drawbacks
when it came to practising moves at home. "My mother had to
take our chandelier down because we kept kicking it," Rafino
recalled. |
