Rockin' Role

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday August 24, 2001

JACQUI TAFFEL

Fifties Fair

Where Rose Seidler House, 71 Clissold Street, Wahroonga

When Sunday, 10am-5pm

How much $7 (children under 12 free)

More information 9989 8020

JACQUI TAFFEL slips on her bobbysocks and enters the era of Chuck Berry, quiffs and big skirts.

About half a century ago, architect Harry Seidler designed and built a house in leafy Wahroonga for his parents Rose and Max. Presumably, it never crossed his mind that the site would eventually be taken over once a year by girls with big skirts, blokes with big quiffs and cars with big tailfins.

Completed in 1950, Rose Seidler House has been restored to its original modernist glory by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, which held the first Fifties Fair there in 1994.

Rock 'n' roll dancer and teacher Miss Eleni has been jiving and twirling at the fair for the past five years with her '50s dancing group, Catseyes Entertainment. She is part of a dedicated bunch in Sydney for whom the '50s scene is not just a hobby, an interest or a quirk. It's a lifestyle.

Miss Eleni discovered the rockabilly scene as a lovelorn teenager: "I had a crush on a boy with a quiff and tattoos." The lifestyle developed from there and she became a dance teacher.

"Ever since I've been an adult all I've done is teach rock 'n' roll. I don't really know the real world."

Miss Eleni's usual attire is a classic Audrey Hepburn/Grace Kelly look - "it's so elegant" - but for dancing, it's a different story. Out come the big skirts and petticoats, the bobbysocks and ponytails with big bows.

"Most people identify the '50s with Grease, that '70s version of the '50s. A 30-year-old woman in the 1950s didn't wear bobbysocks and sneakers down the road, but when we perform we go for the easily identifiable look.

The fair is a big deal on the Sydney rock 'n' roll calendar, attracting a lot of the '50s-inspired crowd. The clothes, food and accessories at the fair will be all '50s-style. Holdens of the era will be parked outside, while inside will be decked out with '50s gadgets and memorabilia.

Visitors have often been inspired to join in the dancing action - two of the Catseyes group dancing at Rose Seidler House this year met Miss Eleni and her dance partner Sean at the fair three years ago and started taking lessons. "They're so chuffed - 'we're going to dance where we met you!'"

Though performing here is a treat, it's also tough. Dancing all day on cracked, sloping concrete is hard on the legs and restricts one's moves. So there are no slides, but plenty of lifts - guaranteed crowd-pleasers. In these flesh-baring times, Miss Eleni finds it curious that a flash of undies as a long skirt flares up still gets a big reaction. "All our dancers have their names on their knickers - I've got Miss Eleni on mine - and the crowd just loves it."

This year music legend Little Pattie will be singing '50s tunes with the Flaming Stars band; while the Catseye dancers will be dancing to a set of instantly recognisable hits. "We always play what we call Top 40 '50s music that people know."

It's hard to remember a time when tracks like Rock Around the Clock and Johnny B. Goode were considered the devil's work, but even now, says Miss Eleni, people don't realise what they're singing along to.

"Like in Shake, Rattle and Roll with its references to a 'one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store' - a lot of the words are so suggestive."

At the ripe old age of 30, Miss Eleni retired from full-time dance teaching and now only trains teachers and her professional dancers. This in no way means she is retiring from the scene. "I can't imagine anything else. Hopefully I'll wear appropriate 80-year-old women's clothes."

So the obvious question is - if she could live in the '50s, would she? The answer is no. "I do like the freedom as a female in this era. I don't think I'd make a good '50s housewife. I'd be one of those tarts who wouldn't be allowed out at night."