 |
 |
 |
DEDICATION TO JODIE HILLS, WHO TRAGICALLY
DIED ON APRIL 7th 2004
By Anne and Nobby, sister Katie aged 20 and Grandpa Arthur Ecott.
“There are no words to describe our utter shock and the devastation we feel at the loss of Jodie. She was kind, caring, generous, thoughtful and funny. We are a very close family and Jodie was a bright light in our world, quick to offer support and always ready to lend a hand. We will miss her terribly our family is not complete without Jodie.”
Jodie was passionate about country music and line dancing, drag racing and cars – with her own pride and joy a Pontiac Firebird. She spent many years teaching the technical routines of line dancing to avid pupils, beginning as a youngster aged just 12 and by the time she was 16 she was teaching her own classes. She taught under the banner of Jodie’s Country and passed her instructors exams in Blackpool.
“She
brought a great deal of happiness in the lives of the people she taught
dancing. Although she was a shy person Jodie came into her own when at the
front of a class and she was able to share her skills and knowledge with
people from all walks of life.”
She spent her early years in and around dragsters and drag strips, going
along to race meetings in the UK and in Europe and tagging along to press
shoots. She attended her first meeting at Santa Pod when she was just a
few months old.
Jodie shared the disappointment with the rest of her family when Nobby had to retire from the sport in 1990. Extremely proud of her father’s achievements in drag racing, Jodie had been instrumental in helping Nobby build the new Nobby Hills Racing Camaro. Being of virtually the same height as drivers Owen and Junior Olley, the entire cockpit layout, levers, pedals and even the position of the steering were built around her.
For the future, Jodie had planned to book a course to learn to drive an articulated truck in order that she could help by taking the new Funny Car to races and shows.
Jodie will be deeply missed by family and friends and all who knew her.
With thanks to the Editor of
Linedancer magazine,
the following appeared in their August edition.
Remembering Jodie
Jodie Lou Hills, founder of Jodie's Country LDC, was due to become the subject of a Linedancer 'Teacher Feature' before her tragic death. Here Linda Willis pays tribute to a much-loved figure on the dance circuit.
The loves of Jodie's life were her family, country music, racing cars - and Line dancing.
She died in late April when her car accidentally veered off the motorway. She was aged just 25. Her devastated parents Anne and Nobby, and 20-year-old sister, Katie, remain heartbroken. Yet they have been struck by the overwhelming support from Line dancers across the south-east who have helped comfort them.
The courage and bravery shown by this close and loving family mirrors young Jodie's attitude to life - instinctively inspirational. They have decided to continue running the Bedfordshire club which bore her name, as a tribute to her love of dancing and Country-style good times.
Jodie knew she wanted to be a Line dancer from an early age. Aged just 12, a trip to the Hayriders Country Club run by Ralph Anthony in Hemel Hempstead sowed the seed for what blossomed into Jodie's Country LDC.
|
|
"We watched people doing something wonderful in the corner of the room, they were closet Line dancers" smiles mum Anne. "We were transfixed - we'd never seen anything like it." Two-step was all they knew, but they soon learned to put one step forward two step back. Jodie was really keen and shortly after announced to her astonished parents that one-day she wanted to become a Line dance teacher. After receiving the first copy of Linedancer Magazine, she decided to follow through and took a course with the British Western Dance Association.
|
Jodie wasn't alone in her quest to teach with the best - her fellow pupil was a young me with long dark hair and a cheeky grin - Rob Fowler.
Like Rob, she passed with flying colours returning to Biggleswade opening her first class. Her mum and dad agreed to set her up with equipment, advertising and music licence.
Aged just 16 and still at school, her first dance was held in April 1995 in the Weatherley Centre. A hall they have used ever since. It was all Country music.
|
"We danced California Freeze, Tush Pus, and Waltz Across Texas - Dad's favourite! " recalls sister Katie. "She told me to stand at the back of the class, but it was for the right reasons. It was vital that every single one of their club members could get the steps right by seeing them, not just those at the front." "People travelled for miles from Hatfield and beyond!" explains Anne. "There were no classes anywhere else. Then came Line dancing's 'big break-through'. Everybody was suddenly talking about it, everyone wanted to do the new craze. The hall was so jam-packed you couldn't see Jodie on stage." Solution? A screen, five metres wide was installed at the side of the stage and video camera set up aimed at Jodie's tapping feet. |
|
"We would tell
people - come and see Jodie's Country on a big screen near you," laughs
Katie.
They began to put on monthly dances, with country groups, Jon Douglas, Kaliber and The Dean Brothers. Angelique Fernandez was the first guest choreographer in November. More classes followed till eventually Jodie's Country were up and running every night of the week and they were being booked to do weddings, private functions, fetes, charities.
But the party didn't last in the way they had hoped.
"Pop music started creeping in," explains Anne. "We'd always felt that Line dancing was all about country music. There have to be enough people to dance to Country music, and so, reluctantly, they started to put on a few non-country tracks to keep people happy.
"As time went by dancers began to drift into smaller groups of up-coming classes that, like so many chart dances, became very popular for a few months, then moved swiftly on to the next 'hot stuff."
"Lots of dances were being choreographed to one track, becoming more complicated. All they needed was a stack of CDs" says Katie ruefully.
Support for the bands dropped until they could no longer afford to book them. They had more discos instead. The chill winds of change blowing across the plains of the Line dancing floors were not what Jodie's Country had been about. They didn't embrace them with open arms.
"In the early days it was a united feeling," says Anne. 'United' is something this small family have learned to be in order to survive.
The family have tasted tragedy before. In 1998 a 45-gallon oil drum exploded into her father's face. The famous racing car maestro was rushed to hospital in a coma where his family was told to prepare for the worst.
Still only 20, Jodie and her sister made tapes of Country music, taking them daily to Nobby's hospital bedside, playing them to him through ear-phones placed carefully on the pillow beside his head, trying to bring him back.
|
Jodie and Dad's truck
|
Eventually he recovered, but still bears the scares from the accident, which left him with needing 12 titanium bars and 32 screws in his rebuilt face. "Jodie was a tower of strength at this time, supporting her mum and sister in every way that she could," says Nobby, his voice trembling with emotion. It took Nobby a long time to recover. With the love of his family, he did. When he was well enough they went to Nashville, where they had enjoyed so many happy family holidays together. Meeting up with some Cajun dancers they were dragged by friends to Manuel's Cajun Central Store.
|
|
Anne says: "They told us 'we can only do Cajun dances - we want to know how to Line dance'. So Jodie and Katy stepped in to teach them. They pulled the shutters across the middle of the street and we asked about the traffic. They told us not to worry. Two police cars suddenly pulled up - blocking the road on either side, stopping the traffic and leaving us all to dance in the middle of the road while they stood there with their arms folded. |
Jodie at Nashville Speedway in 1998 |
Encouraged by the wishes and requests from her dancers and motivated by the memory of her daughter, Anne has pluckily decided, "I will keep the club going - for Jodie's sake."
This shy lady has also found teaching to be an unexpected comfort, something she enjoys, despite her own reservations about her ability.
"I don't take myself too seriously, and sometimes make a mistake. But I laugh at myself when I go wrong and people seem to like my approach," she says wistfully.
At Jodie's funeral they played Alan Jackson - her all time hero - Here In the Real World, and of course the dancing anthem, Lord of the Dance.
|
Jodie-Lou brought a breath of sunshine to so many. "She inspired people. Some have said, without Jodie we would not have a social life. She brought friends together enjoying such wonderful evenings," says Anne. Surely there can be no finer tribute than the knowledge that the shy, 25-year-old blonde whose 'baby' was her Pontiac Firebird, remains an eternal flame igniting the spirit of Jodie's Country forever. |
|
|
Jodie as a baby with Mum Anne and ex-radio 1 DJ, Dave Lee Travis who called her the happiest baby in the world |
|
