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Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Tradition of Excellence
Western Arkansas, AR
By: Dalton Person
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Danztler/MyActionPortraits.com
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Southside’s Dixie Belles have competed, entertained for 25 years
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"Every year, I speak to the Southside squad and tell them about the tradition of the program and what's expected of them," Lee said. "I want them to know who we are and what we represent and that's why we work so hard and strive for perfection."
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As the stands fill on Friday nights, fans from across the state come to witness the thrill of football. At Southside Stadium in Fort Smith, though, many prefer to watch the halftime performance from a spirit squad almost as old as the school itself.
Under the scoreboard that reads “A Tradition of Excellence,” the Dixie Belles take the field with their own tradition.
“It's tradition, it's their trademark, it's the high kick,” the Voice of the Belles says over the public address system. Next, he reports the most recent awards won by the Dixie Belles. This year they were the state runner-up and 7A Northwest Regional Champions.
The crowd marvels in their performance and cheers as loudly as if the Rebels scored a game-winning touchdown when the Belles exit the field.
The Dixie Belles started in 1973, mainly because cross-town rival Northside started its own drill team the year before. Claire Alberson, a PE teacher, grabbed the reigns of the program and passed the duties on several years later. Two more sponsors took control until Judy Lee came to Southside in 1984. Lee had a vision for the future of the program, and to achieve her goal she did something few people at that time in Arkansas ever did. She took her squad to Texas.
“Up until I took over, they had been more of a pom squad, but I wanted to take them in the direction of a dance team,” Lee said. “That first summer I took my returning officers down to Kilgore (Texas) to let them watch its dance squad because that's what I wanted them to be like."
By that time, the Kilgore Rangerettes had become a world-famous dancing squad and performed in every Cotton Bowl since 1951 (An honor that still continues). In fact, the Rangerettes are known as the first drill team.
"Their director had worked with me in previous camps, so that's where the connection was," Lee said. "After we left, we stopped in Dallas and bought the uniforms the Dixie Belles still are based off today and are very similar to those worn by the Rangerettes."
It took several years for the girls to buy into the system, but their style of a precision of dances remains.
"We haven't changed much at all since the Belles adopted the 'drill team,' style and to this day we still mimic the style of the world-famous Kilgore Rangerettes," said current sponsor Linda Burns.
After those first few years, Lee began to enter the Dixie Belles in competitions where the team was very successful. In 1992, the Belles won the Tops in Texas award and a year later the Most Admired team at a large camp in Texas.
Once that success had been achieved, Lee turned to working with the program inside Arkansas.
"We started our own competitions here in Fort Smith, and I started a Drill Team Camp for the area children to come to," Lee said. "We wanted the girls to know who we were and want to be like us when they got older."
When Burns succeeded Lee, few things were changed but one high honor was added to the long list for the Belles. Several years the team performed in New York City at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and expects to attend again next year.
The long tradition of success in Southside's dance team has produced many college dancers. From the most recent team, Annalisa Jenner will be on Vanderbilt Dance, Shannon Kispert on Tulsa Dance, Emily Corbin on Arkansas Pom, and Sarah Snyder will be on the UAFS Cheer squad.
When Lee left the program in the mid-1990s, the tradition and excellence of the program lived on. One of her former dancers, Anne Martfeld, has even started the dance team at Springdale Har-Ber and patterned it after the Dixie Belles.
Near the conclusion of the 2008 school year, Har-Ber and Southside shared a bus and went to watch the Kilgore Rangerettes perform.
"Every year, I speak to the Southside squad and tell them about the tradition of the program and what's expected of them," Lee said. "I want them to know who we are and what we represent and that's why we work so hard and strive for perfection."
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