Members of the Hutt Valley Youth Club dance to rock 'n' roll music in the Taita Community Hall on a Sunday afternoon in 1958. In the early 1940s the boogie woogie and the jitterbug had replaced dances of the 1920s and 1930s, such as the foxtrot and the rumba. By the late 1950s, these dances were seen as staid by teenagers who moved with energy and style to the music of Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and their imitators. Dances like these were opportunities to demonstrate newly acquired skills as a dancer, but also to meet boyfriends, girlfriends and potential lovers.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga
Reference: Pictorial Parade 79. National Film Unit, 1958
Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.