28-06-2025
Tradie Stuart Campbell's unlikely journey to dance instructor
Struggling through heartache and worried about his job, Stuart Campbell's mate was on a mission to cheer him up.
With good intentions and some glee, his friend dragged him along to a Latin dance club in Adelaide.
"I didn't know until we walked in the door and nobody spoke English to me, which was horrifically terrifying when you're trying to learn to dance," Mr Campbell recalled.
"It was mostly driven by gesture because I had no idea what they were saying.
"It wasn't actually embarrassing because I didn't know anybody besides my mate who was so busy laughing at me."
It was 2017, his long-term relationship had ended and the Whyalla Steelworks where he worked as an electrician had gone into administration the year before.
But despite a few nervous jitters, Mr Campbell fell in love with Latin dance.
Within months he'd worn out his dancing shoes.
When he moved to Gladstone in 2018, he travelled back and forth to Rockhampton to attend dance lessons.
A year later he opened his own dance school in Gladstone to give locals in the industrial city a chance to find the same passion he found.
He has about 50 students who attend his adult dance school each week.
Yarwun local Bernadine Daley is one of his students and first attended after a friend asked her to join.
Nerves and a fear of appearing uncoordinated delayed her first visit by more than a month, but now she's a regular.
"I'm 53 and learning to dance and it just fills my soul with so much joy," Ms Daley said with a grin.
"My favourites are swing, Charleston [a jazz dance] is my absolute favourite … I just completely fell in love with it.
"When I go home, I'm so wired, it's hard to go down … it's been one of the best things I've ever brought into my life."
Ms Daley plans to formally test her skills with a medal grading test later this year, where she'll be judged on her moves against a syllabus.
Mr Campbell said in the industrial city, many men joined because of their wives.
"A lot of blokes say, 'I'm not going to do that, I'm not dancing' … but once they come along and have a little bit of fun, they usually end up staying," he said.
