Peter Ellis
Peter Ellis (1946-2015) was born in Bendigo, Victoria. He learned to dance with the locals in the 50s and 60s, developing a lifelong interest in social and ballroom dance. He achieved high proficiency in the ballroom dance form and maintained a lasting enthusiasm for social dance of all sorts. Peter knew and experienced a great deal of what there was to know about social dance in Australia, about particular dances and their histories and relevance to other dances in the genre, and the really good thing is that he wrote it down. With the support of the Victorian Folk Music Club he published:
- "Collectors Choice Vol 1, Set Tunes, Polkas and Barn Dances for traditional dancing in Australia", 1986 [1]
- "Collectors Choice Vol 2, Traditional Music for Country Dances, Quadrilles & Cotillions in Australia", 1987 [2]
- "Collectors Choice Vol 3, Music for Old Time, New Vogue and Modern Ballroom Dances in Australia", 1988 [3]
- "Two Hundred Dancing Years - How to run a Colonial Ball" (co-authored with Shirley Andrews (A.M.), 1988 [4]
- "Music Makes Me Smile - The music of the Nariel Valley" (co-authored with Harry Gardner), Pioneer Performer Series, 1998 (available online)
- "The Merry Country Dance" Vol 1, A social History and Dance descriptions, 2005 [5]
- "The Merry Country Dance and all kinds of Dance Music" Vol 2, 2007
- "The Waltz, the Polka and All Kinds of Dance Music", 2007 [6] (available online)
His recordings and field notes are available in the Peter Ellis Collection of the National Library of Australia. Some of the tunes he collected are presented in this archive.
- The following is a reference to a major music compilation recorded by the the "Emu Creek Bush Band recordings compiled to produce 'The Waltz, the Polka and all kinds of dancing'. " [7]
Peter Ellis trained in industrial chemistry and worked in that capacity starting with the Bendigo Technical College in the 1960s and subsequently, as it morphed through several identities over the years, with the Bendigo Institute of Technology, and finally into the La Trobe University College of Northern Victoria in 1991. It paid the bills. But his great interests were in a concern for the environment, and dance.
He was one of the leading collectors and presenters of his time, of traditional dances, dance tunes and musical instruments in Australia. He collaborated with Shirley Andrews in locating traditional social dance in Australia, initially finding it in the Nariel Valley in 1960s. He later he worked with John Meredith, Rob Willis, Harry Gardner and many others to share his love of and enthusiasm for social dance.
Peter was a driving force behind the things he got involved with:
- As an early environmentalist, he was a life member of the Bendigo Field Naturalists Club, actively involved in campaigns that establish the Whipstick and Kamarooka State Parks (now part of the Bendigo National Park)
- He was a founding member of the The Bendigo Folk Club and 'boss cocky' of the "Emu Creek Band" for 35 years
- Forged links across Victoria through his collecting activities and with bands extant in his time, such as the Wedderburn Oldtimers, and The Gay Charmers, and through his promotion of social dance at National Folk Festivals
- Bush Traditions in an executive capacity
- Enjoyed bush walking and was adept at a practical joke.
There is a recording of Peter Ellis interviewed by Keith McKenry in the National Library of Australia in Canberra.
"Folkloric recording. Peter Ellis, born and educated in Bendigo; speaks of his adoptive parents and grandparents; their heritage and life in Australia; discoving he was adopted when still a child; meeting birth family in 1989 (43 yrs); ongoing relationship with them; their heritage and his ancestry; childhood games and activities, music lessons; school days in Bendigo, love of chemistry; becoming a lab assistant Bendigo Technical College and then technician Flora Hill High School (1981); interest in ballroom dancing; family politics; retirement at 55 yrs; volunteer work; going back to work; Susannah Larratt Award for contribution to Laboratory Technicians' Association of Victoria; John Meredith; talks about his Field Naturalist Club membership (1964); people, things that influenced him; growing interest in the environment; submission for the Whipstick National Park, it's eventual gazettal as a park; discusses several battles to preserve bushland around Bendigo; deputation to Premier Hamer to protect Whipstick; success with Salomen Gully Flora Reserve.
Ellis discusses family life with his adoptive parents; his mother’s remarriage, his sister Robyn; deaths of adoptive father and stepfather; living at home with mother and sister; music, learning to play xylophone, tin whistle; buying house; talks about music and instruments in the lives of his biological family; first Nariel Folk Festival; amazement at the players, Neville Simpson, Keith Klippel, the young teenage box players; acquiring a C box accordion; interest in dancing; reminisces about old time dancing at school, learns ballroom; dances at Spring Gully; discovers the Wedderburn Oldtimers and Harry McQueen; going to National Folk Festival in Sydney (1982) with Wedderburn Old-timers; his books; meeting and association with Shirley Andrews, her political views; Tasmania with Shirley and Wedderburn Oldtimers; joining John Meredith on collecting trips; Merro at Nariel; Chris Sullivan, Rob Willis; trip to W.A. with Merro; Waltzing Matilda, Ma Seal; personal life, formation of Emu Creek Bush Band; interviewing for the NLA; sings a few songs."
