Swingtime Australia, Company

Together Bruce and Sharon have won a number of competitionsincluding being the first NSW winners of the Wintersun Traditional Open and inaugural winners of The Best of The Best Rock ‘n’ Roll competition (2002). Together they have also performed numerous times for a variety of events. Some highlights include TV appearances on Mornings with Kerri Ann, Disney Channel, Music Clip for The Louisville Sluggers, Musical Openings for “Shout-JO’K Story” in Victoria and Sydney, Leader Of The Pack in Sydney, commercials and corporate performances. Sharon - Sharon Hanley was born and raised in Casino, NSW. In this small rural community, the highlight of the social calendar were the Country Hall dances. Dancing became a big part of Sharon’s childhood, as she learnt ballroom dancing from the age of 7 until she was 15. She started to compete and she has won or placed in many competitions with her partner. Sharon also had a love of the 40s/50s lifestyle and fashions, and was delighted to be able to blend it with her other passion, dancing. In 1999, she met and teamed up with Bruce Elder and together their dancing further, with many performances, competition wins and overseas training. Bruce – Bruce Elder was born in Auckland, New Zealand and moved to Australia with his family at the age of 5. His dancing career started in August 1990, when he was taken along to Rock ‘n’ Roll dance classes with his family.He took to dancing like a fish to water, and clearly had a natural ability with it. Over the next few years he trained and competed in many competitions moving from D grade to A grade. He also learned to dance Rockabilly, moving onto win numerous State and National Titles. In 1993, he was introduced to Lee Neilson, one of Australia’s most famous original Champion Swing Dancers from the 1940’s. The 72 year old wanted to train Bruce and his partner to pass on the original Swing dance from Sydney so as not to lose this important part of Australian dance history.