A 101-year-old dance teacher is celebrating another birthday by performing for charity.

Dinkie Flowers, who has starred in shows since the 1950s, will be dancing all the way up to her 102nd birthday and running one-hour sessions for the public.

Dinkie, from Shoreham, previously raised money for the NHS and has now been joined by MP Tim Loughton to help a community support group.

Lesley Tomlinson, who helped Dinkie to raise money, said: “Dinkie says she will never stop dancing until they carry her off in a box.”

Mr Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said after Dinkie put him through his paces: “I’m knackered and covered in sweat. It has been quite good fun but gosh I’m not that fit.

“I have just done a fraction of what Dinkie usually does, but she is raising money for a fantastic cause.”

Dinkie is raising money for the Gateway Hub, a community support group which provides food and other essentials to people in Shoreham, Southwick and Fishersgate.


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She started dancing at the age of three and still hosts dancing and keep fit lessons at her Dinkie Flowers Stage School in Shoreham to this day.

A couple of weeks shy of her birthday, Dinkie starts every morning by going to the studio in her home and practising some moves on her ballet barre.

She was once arrested in 1940s' Paris for wearing a red playsuit to perform as it was associated with illegal prostitution at the time.

She said: "I couldn't live without dancing and I think it's what's kept me young and happy. I see people just sitting on their bottoms all day and reading but it's important to get up and keep on moving - I need to be able to do something."

Dinkie made her TV debut on the Greatest Dancer, a British competition series which aired in 2019 during which she won her the hearts of the British public.

Dinkie is raising money via her JustGiving page.