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Situated on
the South Coast, in West Sussex is the town of Littlehampton, where
you will find Dixie Belles Line Dance Club. Run by Jenny Bembridge,
who is a member of the BWDA2000,
you will find a warm welcome awaits for all.
Line dances
lessons now take place on Tuesday and Thursday nights at St Mary's
Church Hall, Clymping.
Our dance
instructor is Gill Manson who is also a member of the BWDA2000.
All levels of line dancing are catered for, beginners, improvers,
intermediate and western partner dancing. See What's On Page for details.
Friday or
Saturday nights are social evenings featuring a live band. The
evening starts at 7.30 - 8pm and continues until 11pm. We usually
start with a disco to warm you up then three sets of live
entertainment, plus a raffle. We also have themed party nights which
take place throughout the year.
So why not
come along and join us at the friendliest club on the South Coast.
Whether you like to dance or just listen to the music everyone is welcome.

This years
Grand Charity Line Dance was held on Friday 12th June at Pagham
Village Hall. A total of £710 was raised from various fund
raising activities including £151 from the Easter Egg raffle,
bottle rolls and auctions held on the night. This year the proceeds
went towards the Cancer Day Unit at St Richard's Hospital,
Chichester, West Sussex. Lesley-Anne Lloyd the chief fund raiser from
the hospital attended along with two of her colleagues. The dance was
well supported, especially as we had to have a change of venue at the
last minute. The band for the evening were Muddy Boots, who gave us
an excellent evening of entertainment keeping the dancers on the
floor all night, with Jenny's disco in between sets. As in recent
years it has become usual for a cabaret act, and this year it was
performed by 'The Village Idiots', aka Jim, Les, Arthur, Cyril, John
and Dave who gave us their own very funny version of 'In The Navy'. A
big thank you to all who donated prizes for the raffle enabling us to
raise money for this very worthy cause.

Last September
I was approached by Take A Break magazine who wanted to run an
article about dance and exercise. They wanted two volunteers from our
beginners lesson to take part in a six week session. Two ladies were
chosen, and where contacted throughout the weeks and asked various
questions about how they were progressing, and if they had any funny
stories to tell. At the end they were then taken to a photo shoot and
the end result was shown in the New Year editon of the magazine.
Linedancer Magazine then featured the article in their March issue,
so if you are a member you can check out their website at www.linedancermagazine.com
I consider
myself to have been very privileged and lucky to have been able to
meet Keith Urban on his visit to London. Some fans came as far as
Scotland and one lady had even travelled from France. We all met in a
pub beforehand to get to know one another, alone with Madeline who
had organised this wonderful event for us. We are then taken to the
hotel to meet Keith. He came across as a very kind and considerate
man, probably more nervous at meeting us then we were meeting him. He
signed autographs for us and we all had out picture taken with him.

I mentioned
that I had seen him in Nashville a couple of years ago and told him
about Dixie Belles. He very kindly signed a photo to 'All the gang at
Dixie Belles'. Afterwards came the showcase, which took place in a
nearby club. This was mainly for the music industry and although it
was an attempt to dull down his country image, it did not deter us
from having a great time. I am not sure how it was really received
but we were all on cloud nine. Then it was off to the pub again with
our goodie bags to exchange views and photos. He certainly made 12
ladies very happy women for a couple of hours. He is supporting Bryan
Adams on the 13th May at Earls Court, and is also appearing at the
Scala in London on the 16th May.
I was also
very lucky to have seen Gretchen Wilson on Monday at the Carling
Academy Islington in London. What a great show this was, and how nice
it was to see in the audience some of the British Country Artistes
there, Billy Bubba King, Gemma Fairweather and Rob Childs from Vegas.
Although I didn't manage a photo I was lucky enough to get her autograph.
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