Peter and Dorothy Taylor love to dance more than anything - but preserving local history rates a close second.
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The couple are staging a special event, titled 'The Good Old Days of Music and Dance' at Mitchells Island Hall, from 7pm on Saturday, August 6.
The invitation-only event will see dancers from Gloucester and Old Bar performing old time dances to be recorded by a crew from the Oral History section of the National Library of Australia. The program will feature three special dances being recorded for posterity, those being the Varsoviana, the Mazurka, and the Prince of Wales Schottische.
The performance of these dances are to be recorded by Rob Willis from the oral history section of the National Library of Australia.
A resident of Forbes in the Central West, Rob has been in the role for more than 40 years and travels to locations to record and preserve cultural traditions that otherwise might be lost. This includes old songs, musicians, poetry and dance, much of which is communicated by or through the oral tradition.
"It's been never written down. And it's passed down from generation to generation or from person to person," Rob said.
"So what we're doing is taking a snapshot in time for the National Library and recording this dance of people doing forgotten dances - or they will be forgotten - because this is the last generation of people who do them."
Rob will be capturing the event with his wife Olya, who is also a photographer and sound recordist. Together the two have recorded more than 1500 peoples' stories. Their combined experience ensures that what would otherwise be fading traditions are safely preserved for future generations' reference.
Not that he won't be back for future projects, given the amount of material available in the Mid Coast region.
"There was a plethora of old time musicians around that area. There's a whole stack of stuff up there that's well worth maintaining," Rob said.
Thanks to programs such as that of the National Library of Australia, the traditions of yesterdays will live on for those of tomorrow.
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