Archive - Studio 112

Froulop & Paton Ballroom Dance Studio

112 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW

Selected Archive Credit

Studio 112 sat directly across the road from Capriccio’s, the famous drag club and a pulse point of the Oxford Street scene. It occupied the top floor of the building, with windows opening south onto Oxford Street and, to the north, expansive views across the harbour.

The studio was a registered public dance hall dating back to the 1940s. Charles Froulop and Ivy Paton had been based at the location from the 1950s, and by the time I arrived it was a thriving, layered space shaped by decades of movement, discipline, and creative exchange. Drag queens and performers from the surrounding precinct regularly used the studio to rehearse, alongside competitive dancers, teachers, and visiting artists.

In my time, I used Studio 112 repeatedly for theatre, film, and private sessions. It hosted rehearsals connected to Strictly Ballroom, work with Ralph Fiennes, NHIT rehearsals, and many other professional and private projects that passed through its worn but resonant floor.

Physically, the studio was modest but demanding, measuring approximately 22 metres long and 8 metres wide. Three large structural pillars ran down one side of the room, dividing the space and adding an additional social and spatial challenge that dancers simply learned to negotiate. At any given hour, it was common to have three to five teachers working simultaneously, each teaching couples across ballroom styles, Latin modes, or New Vogue. Music overlapped, rhythms collided, and the room remained in constant motion.

Charles Froulop was widely respected not only for his dancing, but for his generosity and quiet authority. By profession, he was an engineer, and with his brother ran Froulop & Sons on Parramatta Road in Dulwich Hill. He brought the same clarity, patience, and problem-solving to dance that he did to engineering.

I never met Ivy Paton. By the time I arrived, she was living in a nursing home with dementia. Charles would regularly drive to Gosford to visit her, almost every week. Her absence was felt, not spoken about. The studio still carried her imprint, in photographs, in memory, and in the way the space was held.

My personal connection to Charles predated my time at the studio. In the early 1970s, he judged me in a local ballroom competition at the Tamworth Town Hall. After the event, he told my mother that if I wished to continue seriously, I needed to get to Sydney. That sentence lingered for years.

In 1980, I finally ascended the stairs to the top floor of the Oxford Street studio.

Annual Dance Week, Final Night programme, Trocadero, Sydney, 1961.
Cover and interior pages from the programme for the Annual Spectacular Final Night of Dance Week, held at the Trocadero on 15 May 1961. The programme includes the listing for Charles Froulop and Ivy Paton, identifying their base as Studio 112, 112 Oxford Street, Sydney, and confirming their professional standing as teachers, competitors, and examiners within Australia’s mid-century ballroom dance circuit.

Charles Froulop performing at the Trocadero, Sydney
Charles Froulop captured mid-performance during a ballroom exhibition at the Trocadero, one of Sydney’s major entertainment and dance venues during the mid-twentieth century. Performances such as this formed part of the competitive and exhibition circuit that underpinned the teaching culture later embedded at Studio 112, Oxford Street.

 

Daily Mirror Health and Lifestyle Feature, 1988

Raymond Mather and Sonia Kruger, Studio 112 Oxford Street

Raymond Mather and dance partner Sonia Kruger during a professional photoshoot at Studio 112, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, for a Daily Mirror Health and Lifestyle feature. Photographed by Bob Barker and published in March 1988, this session documented their emerging partnership and performance aesthetic during a formative period of Raymond’s Sydney dance career.

The feature captured both technical precision and expressive connection, reflecting the growing public visibility of ballroom and performance dance in late-1980s Australia.

Raymond Mather and Sonia Kruger photographed during a fashion and portrait shoot at Studio 112, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, in 1988, during their professional ballroom partnership prior to the filming of Strictly Ballroom. Photo by Bob Barker 3 March 1988.

Raymond Mather and Sonia Kruger in performance hold, Studio 112 Oxford Street, photographed by Bob Barker for the Daily Mirror, 1988.

Raymond Mather and Sonia Kruger in rehearsal-based photoshoot session, Studio 112, Darlinghurst, March 1988.

Raymond Mather and Sonia Kruger in lifted ballroom pose beneath Dirty Dancing poster, Studio 112, photographed for the Daily Mirror, 1988.

Raymond Mather and Sonia Kruger in extended partnered balance, Studio 112 Oxford Street, March 1988.

Raymond Mather and Sonia Kruger in dynamic partnered turn during the Daily Mirror photoshoot at Studio 112, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, photographed by Bob Barker, 4 March 1988.

 

Handwritten signature and dating by photographer Bob Barker on the reverse of the original print from the Raymond Mather and Sonia Kruger Studio 112 photoshoot for the Daily Mirror, 1988.

Handwritten letter of appreciation from Kerry Yates, Fashion Editor, Daily Mirror, acknowledging the Studio 112 photoshoot, 1988.

By the late 1980s, Studio 112 continued to operate as a working rehearsal and creative space, bridging mid-century ballroom tradition with contemporary dance, media, and performance practice. The studio functioned as a professional hub for dancers transitioning between competition, stage, film, and emerging media contexts.

Students photographed during a ballroom event at Studio 112, 112 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, in December 1954. The images show the studio in active use during its mid-century peak, with audiences gathered closely around the floor, reflecting the intensity and social importance of ballroom dance in Sydney at the time.

 

 

Charles Froulop, television performance, Sydney
Charles Froulop photographed during a televised ballroom dance demonstration in Sydney during the mid-twentieth century. Appearances such as these extended ballroom dance beyond studio and competition settings, contributing to its wider public visibility and reinforcing the professional standing of dancers and teachers associated with venues such as Studio 112, Oxford Street.

 

Charles Froulop and Ivy Paton, winners of the NSW Professional Ballroom Dancing Championship, Petersham Town Hall, Sydney, 1950s.

Historical Record

Contemporary press coverage confirms the professional standing of Ivy Paton and Charles Froulop within Australia’s ballroom dance elite. In The Sydney Morning Herald (22 July 1954), Paton and Froulop are reported as winners of the Blue Riband professional ballroom championship at the Federal Association of Teachers of Dancing contest at the Trocadero, Sydney, and as Commonwealth champions during the Queen’s visit.
Source: National Library of Australia, Trove

 

Ivy Paton resting on the side steps at Petersham Town Hall following competition performance, 1950s.

Ivy Paton’s jewellery, discovered during the closure of Studio 112 and preserved as part of this archive.

 

Why Memories of Ivy was important to me

In the early 1990s, the council-owned building at 112 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, which housed Studio 112, was required to vacate after failing updated fire regulations. During the process of clearing the space, I discovered a drawer containing photographs, memorabilia, and a bag of Ivy Paton’s jewellery. Charles had spoken to me about these items, and I understood their significance.

At a time when everything was being discarded without regard for history, I kept them instinctively. They were not treated as an archive then, simply as something that felt important to preserve.

Those items are archived here. Memories of Ivy grew from that moment, not as documentation, but as a quiet acknowledgement of a life, a partnership, and a creative space that shaped generations before disappearing.

ART1 Archive Context

This page forms part of the ART1 Archive, documenting professional creative work, exhibitions, and cultural contributions undertaken prior to the launch of ART1 Fine Art Photography.

See more projects and professional experiences in Selected Credits.