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| SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | AUGUST 2021 | 35 Country Western Dance To old and new residents - if you think you may have an interest in our club, plan on attending our first line dance lesson on Mon., Sept. 13 in the South Clubhouse at 7 pm. We will tell you all about us and get you started with the most basic dance. No charge, no obligation. Now to our old friends… we think we're coming back starting in September. We will start line dance instructions on the first Monday after Labor Day which is Sept. 13. Again in the South Clubhouse starting at 7 pm until 8:30 pm. The instructions will start at the very beginning, learning what a grapevine is and going on from there. We all need to start at the basics after such a long absence. There will be some activity changes. Instead of monthly dances in the Ballroom, we will have three or four Dance Parties. One will still be our traditional Holiday Dance in early December. For all of our dance friends please come back and also encourage your friends and neighbors to come and give it a try. See you all in September. Tap Dance We are working hard on Sun Lakes Follies Acts, therefore new classes will start in October. Contact Jeann Svarvar at (951) 990-2779 or svarvar@svarvar.net We hope you enjoyed our Military Dance Number that we performed on the Fourth of July. We sure had a lot of fun performing it. We are now busy practicing for the Follies Show starting on Oct. 1. We will be performing to the Beach Boys music with numbers including males and females. If you are interested in becoming a Stardust Dancer please call Evelyn Hawkins at (951) 845-7199. The Stardust Dancers range from all ages and no dancing experience necessary. Retired Stardust Dancers: If you have any costumes, please call Evelyn and she will pick them up. Stardust Dancers The Friendship Club remembers "The Dukes of Dixieland, Celebrating Satchmo" which came to our stage in 2016. Formed in 1974 by producer John Shoup, the DUKES opened a jazz club atop the Monteleone Hotel in the French Quarter, calling it "Dukes' Place" with the blessing of its previous owner, Louis Prima. Playing four sets a night, often lasting until dawn, Dukes' Place also became the home base for many jazz sessions produced by Shoup for PBS, including the early Marsalis family, Stephane Grappelli, Les McCann, and Toots Thielemans. The Dukes started touring with 30 dates a year, with orchestras, at festivals, and Performing Arts Centers all over the world until 1986. In 1978, the Dukes recorded the first Direct-to-Disk album, and then, in 1984, were the first jazz band to record on CD. In 1980, they recorded a television special at the old Civic Theater in New Orleans, with the New Orleans Pops Orchestra. Later, they performed in a TV special with Woody Herman, Wood Choppers Ball. In 1986, they invited jazz master Danny Barker to perform with them to record a television special Salute to Jelly Roll Morton. In 2001, their gospel CD Gloryland was nominated for a Grammy. Also that year, they recorded a CD titled Country Meets Dixie with The Oak Ridge Boys in Nashville TN. In 1992, they moved their home base to the Steamboat Natchez. They still perform only 30 concerts a year with eight different themes: Mardi Gras, Blues on the Bayou, Symphonic Jazz, Voodoo Revue, Celebrating Satchmo, New Orleans Jazz Legends, and Back to Bourbon Street. In-between, they continue to work the dinner cruise on the NATCHEZ for 45 weeks a year, seven nights a week. Unlike their dixieland name, they play New Orleans music, from Dr. John and Fats Domino, to Huey Smith and Louis Prima, not to mention many of their own original tunes. With a repertoire of roughly 400 tunes, there is room for all of the above and to still be the pre-eminent New Orleans band as well as New Orleans Ambassadors. They have performed with symphony orchestras, including the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, National, New York Pops (in Carnegie Hall), and 29 other orchestras around the world. In 2005, they traveled aboard the Natchez up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Cincinnati OH, raising money for the Bush-Clinton Katrina Relief Fund, while many of the band members' homes were still destroyed. In 2011, they performed with the Boston Pops. The Friendship Club

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