Boston Tea Dances, mostly 2nd Sundays, starting 10/14/01
Michael Bergman
Starting Sunday October 14th, 2001
2-5 PM SUNDAY afternoons, at the First Unitarian Society of Newton,
1320 Washington Street
The MOSTLY Second Sunday Tea Dance series starts up again, with Patri
Pugliese teaching dances of the mid-19th century (Civil War Era),
just in time for those wishing to attend CVD & The Salem Light
Infantry's Ball (also Civil War Era, by a strange coincidence!),
October 20th (about which more in another posting).
The compleat schedule is as follows:
October 14th mid-nineteenth century with instruction by Patri Pugliese
November 11th mid-nineteenth century with instruction by Michael Bergman
December 9th late nineteenth century with instruction by Patri Pugliese
January 13th late nineteenth century, instruction TBA
*February 17th* mid-nineteenth century with instruction by Patri
Pugliese
NOTE!!! The above is a THIRD Sunday!! No Dance on the 10th of
February!!!
March 10th TBD
April 14th TBD (probably Ragtime)
May 12th Mother's Day Dance (probably Ragtime)
The Tea Dances are NOT fancy dress-up affairs; they are intended to
focus on practice and instruction in the dances of the era. The only
dress code is 'please -- no shorts, no T-shirts'. I suppose I could
add 'no sweat suits', but I think you get the idea. Except in the
case of Scotsmen, I prefer that the *men* wear trousers and the
*ladies* wear skirts...
The format this year will be similar to previous years; mostly dance
instruction until the break, then mostly dancing after the break,
with Tea served *during* the break. As always, we will vary this
format to suit the attendees, with more instruction or less as
appropriate. We tend to start off with basics, and try to hit some
modestly advanced steps in the later part of the day. As we have for
several years, we will enjoy the scrumptious subtleties of the
Liliputian Catering Company for many of our refreshments.
Some other dates of interest to those of you in the Boston area (the
original intended recipients of this mailing list!) are:
October 20th mid-nineteenth century Regimental Ball (Salem Light
Infantry, CVD)
December 15th late ninteenth century Holiday Ball (CVD)
February 9th late nineteenth century Ball at the Astor's, Newport (CVD,
Astors)
February 23rd mid-nineteenth century Returning Heroes Ball (CVD)
Sometime in April -- a Ragtime Ball (CVD)
Further information on these events can be found at
http://vintagedancers.org/events.html
The only one of these balls with a *strict* dress code is Returning
Heroes; all the rest are 'appropriate costume *encouraged*, not
*required*' -- feel free to write to me to ask about what constitutes
'appropriate'.
For those of you with a historical bent, the term 'Tea Dance" appears
to have first come into use for this sort of event in 1914, making its
use
for a 19th century event a bit of an anachronism. This is all the
apology you get...
If you want more info, or to be added to my email list (and get more
frequent
announcements) contact me: eclectic AT mit.edu