It is pleasing that after many years of sitting exams for the IDTA I am now a member of the IDTA.

I attend various clubs around West Sussex and I am very lucky to be accompanied to classes and social events by my husband - Roy (who after much nagging by me) gained his bronze medal - with honours - in couples dancing.

My Mum also used to accompany me to some classes and to the social events, but sadly died in February 2007. She enjoyed the company of many dancers and was known to many as "Mum Jean". This was a very hard time for me as four days after she died Roy went into hospital for major heart surgery. Without the world of line dancing and the good friends it provides, I do not know how I would have survived.

Phil Carpenter      

Married to Caroline, we started line dancing together about 15 years ago and I very quickly became interested in choreography and have so far released about 40 dances. 2 of these dances have been accredited on the Linedance Fever collection of cd’s. Namely: “TOUCH’N GO” and “2 TIMES”. My most successful dance to date, which has been published in “UP COUNTRY” magazine, and has been danced around the country, is titled “A LOVE WORTH WAITING FOR”. I have also had a dance published in “Linedancer” magazine entitled:” WHEN IT’S OVER”.Caroline has suffered over the years with my constant requests of her to try out my new dances and offer her opinion on them. We have not yet fallen out, much to my surprise! I first visited “Beavercreek Linedance Club” 12 years ago, at the invitation of Roger, to come and teach my latest dance, at that time, which was:” What D’ya Know”. I enjoyed the evening so much I stayed, and have tried to become an active member of the club ever since. It is due to “Beavercreek” giving me the chance and opportunity to teach my dances at the club, that I have gained the valuable experience and confidence needed to help me in my dance instruction.

.A result of this, I have been given the opportunity to teach at different venues and festivals in the U.K. and had the pleasure of being invited to teach at classes in Cyprus and on a number of occasions in the U.S.A. This all culminated in being asked to run the clubs’ new Wednesday evening class. I tried to put my own stamp on the evening and make it different, by introducing dances not being done on Monday night’s and to make it more of an upbeat pace for the duration of the evening. I ran this class until 2004 when Caroline & I took a break from dancing. It was at this time we obtained a dog, Buster, a Springer Spaniel, who got all our attention. An invitation by Chris and Roy to their Wedding Anniversary party, resulted in our return to Line dancing.  Having returned to the Wednesday night class and attending various social evenings that Chris & Roy put on we are now regulars to the club. On our return we soon found that we had forgotten all the old dances and had to start all over again. The taste for choreography quickly returned and I soon started choreographing dances again, which, Chris & Roy have kindly allowed me to teach to the class. I also help out Chris with teaching Golden Oldie dances that the class want to learn. These tend to be reviews for the long time serving dancers or a completely new dance for the more recent members, either way; I think and hope the class enjoy these dances. My personal hope for the future is to have greater success with my own attempts at Choreography and that the class allow me to continue to teach these dances to them and that they enjoy them.