Always struggling to keep his feet still as a young boy, Neville knew he had found his calling when his mother took him to his first dancing lesson at the age of five. 

“I think it’s just in me, it always has been,” Neville, now 86, explains.

“I’ve been doing it since I was a little boy. I could never keep my feet still. Dancing is like a release of energy. When you do a move right you just get a thrill.” 

After leaving school at the age of 14, Neville joined an entertainment group which saw him dance at boy’s homes, aged care facilities and Long Bay and Parramatta Gaols. 

In 1955, he boarded a ship to London and toured Europe as part of a dance trio then a duet. 

During this time he worked at the London Paladium in West End and had the opportunity to dance alongside famous British singer Vera Lynn. 

The European winters soon proved too much for Neville and he returned to Sydney in 1963. 

Soon after beginning work at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney, Neville met a woman called Dawn – a ballerina and dance teacher who captured his heart.

The couple married in 1974 and the following year they escaped the “hustle and bustle” of the city for the slower pace of Rainbow Flat where they have been ever since. 

The couple established the Munro School of Stage Dancing at Wingham soon after. Over the years they have taught hundreds of students at halls in Tuncurry, Forster, Nabiac and Taree.  

The Munro’s also converted a granny flat on their property into a dancing studio which is more like a trophy room, filled with Neville’s as well as some of his former students dancing memorabilia.    

Some of his former students have gone on to become teachers or been offered work with high profile dance companies. One student was even selected to dance at Disneyland in Japan, Neville points out.   

“I’m so proud. You don’t know how it feels, it’s fantastic,” Neville said of their achievements. 

The couple’s only daughter, Belinda – also an accomplished dancer and teacher - took over the Wingham dance studio in 1992 when Neville decided it was time to retire. 

Belinda, who is still busy teaching at the school as well as various other locations in the Great Lakes, Manning and in Kempsey, has done “a fine job” of running the school says Neville.  

As a diabetes sufferer, Neville says his health restricts him from dancing too much these days but from time to time he helps out Belinda at the studio as well as those in need of some dancing tips. 

“Belinda will send students to Dawn and I and I’ll say ‘next time you come here I hope it looks better. Get your bum moving,’ he explains. 

“I also teach a group of ladies jazz and tap once a week as part of their practice for a charity show they do in Tuncurry every year.”  

The group are what Neville likes to call the ‘Munroettes’ and are made up of local women Jenny Curtis, Diane Kemp, Yvonne Ireland, Sandy Ford, Ann Ligertwood, Gillian Dutton and Jen Morgan. 

Neville’s advice for dancers young and old? - persistence. 

“It all comes down to how you feel. If you want to do it well, keep on trying. You just have to take the good with the bad.” 

Reflecting over the years and the many lives he has had a lasting impact on, Neville says he feels blessed to have lived a life doing what he loves.

“It’s been a great journey. If I die tomorrow, well, I’ve got no regrets.”