Formidable Shoreham dance teacher praised by Alesha Dixon has died aged 105

Dinkie Flowers was a formidable figure who taught generations of children at her Dinkie Flowers Stage School.

She remained fit and active as she got older, even making it on to The Greatest Dancer at the age of 98 and receiving high praise from presenter Alesha Dixon for her high kicks and tap dancing.

Dinkie lived in Shoreham for most of her life but passed away at Wraysbury House care home in Worthing on June 21, six weeks after her 105th birthday.

Having danced since she was three years old, Dinkie became an international ice skater with the stage name Dinkie Stapleton. She was a Holiday on Ice skater for eight years and went on to perform as a soloist skater all over the world.

She danced for the royal family at the Queen’s Ice Club in London in 1952, and received a letter of thanks from the Duke of Edinburgh as a result.

She also danced for the Iraqi royal family when the British Embassy in Baghdad used an ice rink to explain the concept of refrigeration to the locals in the 1950s.

As a centenarian, Dinkie raised thousands of pounds for charity with her sponsored keep fit routines and even danced with the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Rt Hon Sir Lindsay Hoyle, when she visited Parliament in May 2022 to mark her 101st birthday.

A born performer, she regularly directed dance routines for Shoreham Light Opera Company. She also choreographed the world première of an opera by astronomer Patrick Moore, entitled Perseus and Andromeda, at Shoreham Community Centre in 1974.

The funeral service will be at St Mary de Haura Church in Shoreham town centre on Monday, August 3, at 11am. The burial will be at Mill Lane Cemetery.

Dinkie is survived by her daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren.