DANCE all your cares away - that's the philosophy of members of a Weymouth line dancing class, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The Borderline Scuffers have been stepping out for 20 years at different venues across the town.

The dance group's first meeting was at the Scutt Hall in Sutton Poyntz in 1997.

The club, which has around 100 members, has seen many friendships form over the years and people have even met their future partners while line dancing!

It was set up after Jo and Paul Barrow, of Weymouth, who run the club, decided they needed to 'get off the sofa'.

Jo said: "We are a second marriage and when we got together we thought 'We need to try something new.' We were sat on the sofa becoming fatter and decided to give a line dancing class a go so we tried George Biles' dance classes as a way of doing some exercise.

"After a few weeks Paul said to me 'I think I could teach this'. I thought 'How could we do this?' but we had enough passion and enthusiasm to do it and it went from there."

Borderline members recently attended a celebration disco at Weymouth Pavilion, where one of the classes is held, to mark the milestone.

They raised £400 from a raffle and door takings for local charities the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust and the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.

Jo and Paul, who are both in their 70s, haven't looked back since starting their classes and now hold them three days a week in locations across Weymouth.

Jo said: "A lot of people have this cowboy image of line dancing, but it's not like that at all.

"We use many different genres of music, including stuff that's in the charts. There's a certain amount of country music and we also have lots of Irish music.

"A particularly popular track is Gypsy Queen which people really enjoy dancing to as well."

The oldest members of Borderline are in their 80s while there are some as young as eight or nine, Jo said.

Over the years numbers have grown and today there are many loyal founder members who are regularly dancing with them along with a constant flow of newly recruited line dancers.

Paul teaches the dancing and Jo offers encouragement while dancing at the back of the crowd and looks after the administration side of the group.

There are many health benefits to dancing, Jo says.

"The health benefits are amazing. For the more mature of us who are worrying about Alzheimer's, this is the kind of thing where the steps and the sequences keep your brain working hard. You also have the benefit from the exercise and keeping moving.

"We've had people in the group who've had their hips replaced and they've come back and have been able to keep dancing and build up their strength."

Borderline members fought for the future of Borderline when it faced losing one of its venues when Weymouth Pavilion was under threat in 2013.

Jo said: "We joined a protest because the pavilion is so important to the community. We did a petition and we hope it helped to influence things. It's great that it has been taken on by someone who is interested in the community side of it."

Club members often spend organised weekends away together enjoying dance demonstrations, master-classes from celebrity choreographers and social dancing to live bands.

There's a fantastic sense of camaraderie, Jo said.

“It’s a great opportunity to enjoy leisure time with friends. We're so pleased we've made it to 20 years and it's so nice to be with all these people who enjoy dancing and have big smiles on their faces. There's a real feelgood element to it and it's a lot to do with all these endorphins being released by dancing.

"Paul works so hard with the teaching and keeps people happy. We've found that fun is the key. He's such a good teacher and he's so patient."

Borderline classes are held at the Pavilion Ocean Ballroom (Tuesdays 7pm), WOW Theatre Workshop in Park Street (Wednesdays 10am) and St. Aldhelm’s Church Centre (Thursdays 7.30pm).

Call 01305 773033 for more information on the group.