BALLROOM dance teacher Wynne Freeman has rubbed shoulders with all the greats - Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, Black Sabbath, Marc Bolan.

For during the 60s and early 70s, the Kidderminster dance school she ran with her late husband, Frank, also served as a venue for the cream of British rock acts - The Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, all played there, as well as stars such as reggae legend Jimmy Cliff and Captain Beefheart.

"Robert Plant used to come here quite a lot," Wynne recalls. "Even when Led Zeppelin was playing Wembley he used to come for a drink at Christmas and gave half an hour's performance every year for six or seven years. He never forgot how Frank helped them."

And she recalled how DJ and radio personality John Peel, interviewed recently, revealed one of his most treasured recordings of Captain Beefheart was made at their club.

"It was a lot of fun," she says. Ultimately, however, the club, which helped steer many a band on to success, or not - Tea & Symphony? The Day that the Dog Bit the People? - fell victim to the demand by bands and their agents for more money for appearances.

But if the last waltz sounded for R'n'B and prog rock at the Lower Mill Street venue, the dance studio has gone on, and on. And at 81 years of age, Wynne shows no signs of retiring.

Ballroom, sequence, rock & roll, disco, line dancing, she has taught them all, putting thousands of wannabe Fred Astaires and Patrick Swayzes, young and old, through their paces.

"I have senior customers on a Tuesday afternoon," says Wynne. "The youngest is in her mid-50s, the eldest is 87. They shame the youngsters."

Wynne was bitten by the dancing bug when she was 14 and living in Leicester, her hometown. "The factory I worked for used to have a Christmas party dance," she remembers. "I was at the Palais de Dance. A foreman asked me to dance, I said I couldn't and he literally pushed me on the dance floor." A few years later, wild horses couldn't have pulled her off.

"I was about 17 or 18. My dad didn't approve of my being out. But my mum knew I loved dancing. She used to leave the kitchen window open for me to climb through. My dad thought I was in bed."

Wynne met Frank at a church hall dance in Leicester in 1940 and the couple married two years later, moving to Frank's home town, Kidderminster, in 1947 after training as dance teachers. The first school opened on May 13, 1948, and moved to its current site, at the former Bijou Cinema, in 1956.

As well as rock concerts and dancing classes, Frank and Wynne also hosted showcases by top dancing stars such as Bill and Bobbie Irving.

"It's been hard work since Frank died, nearly 10 years ago," admits Wynne. "Sometimes when I'm at home I wish I had not got to go out. But when I get here I think, why did I feel like that?"