When Saturday Night Fever gripped Sunderland - remembering the dance craze of the 1970s

The jive really was talking in Sunderland in 1978 when it seemed the whole of the city was getting into dance fever.

Whether it was Stayin’ Alive, How Deep Is Your Love?, More Than A Woman or If I Can’t Have You - you couldn’t miss the influence of the American mega-hit movie Saturday Night Fever which was continuing to take the North East disco scene by storm after being released in 1977.

The fever which reached an epidemic in Sunderland

In fact, according to the Sunderland Echo at the time, the fever had reached "epidemic proportions".

We all remember the hits such as Night On Disco Mountain, Night Fever and Disco Inferno.

Dance classes went through the roof

But how many of you remember the reaction on Wearside to the movie. Or the fact that it led to competitions and Fever-based dance classes?

Our report at the time said: "The dance craze that has swept the States and is now all the rage in our discos is so popular on Wearside that a Sunderland dance teacher is starting classes for middle-aged ravers wanting to hit the dance floor as Saturday Night Fever exponents."

100 people a time were learning the steps

That dance teacher was Mattie Dorn, who said at the time: "It is so popular that I am getting up to 100 people a week coming to learn the steps.

"The youngest is nine and I have over40s and a 50-year-old all wanting to get the fever."

Mattie learned the dance from Americans running a special £1-an-hour course in London.

She said she was confident that the current rage would rival the rock n’ roll era, the Twist, the Shake and even the Charleston.

It was an exciting beat

She said teenagers loved it because there were set steps they could learn.

Mattie said: "We have continually been asked to teach disco dancing, but we don’t because there are no set steps. With the fever, they enjoy the disciplined movements and the excitement of the beat."

The dance newcomers were certainly in safe hands when it came to learning, as Mattie was the third generation of her family to teach dance in Sunderland.

In fact, her father Professor Dorn took classes in the Victoria Hall.

But Mattie believed that strutting their stuff to Saturday Night Fever was the best way for people to exercise.

An exercise for all the body

She said: "You are exercising all parts of the body - the tummy, hips, shoulders, head and feet - it is a marvellous way to keep fit."

Elsewhere in Sunderland, the Northumbria Association of Youth Clubs held its own Saturday Night Fever dance competition.

Among the entrants were a set of students who had been complete beginners eight weeks before the contest got under way.

Rowena Thompson, a dance and community worker at the Biddick Farm Arts Centre, took the novices from Fulwell Methodist Church Youth Club under her wing.

No bones about it - the skeletons were winners

Her team of skeletons and a witch - Helen Wilson, Lynn Thornton, Georgina Outen, Janet Lee, Jill Albion and Susan Hitcham - won.

The competition led to a regional finals at Leeds and potentially to a national final at the Hammersmith Palace later that same year.

How did the ladies do in the next round? Email [email protected]