An elegant, refreshing, and fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Second Sunday Afternoons, 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

January 2009 through April 2009

Fall, 2008:

The 2008 Fall dances have been cancelled due to a problem with our site, but we urge you to check out the
2nd and 4th Friday evenings in Salem dance.

Winter/Spring, 2009:

January 11th: Civl War era dances with Barbara Pugliese

February 8th: English Regency dances with Susan de Guardiola

March 8th: Ragtime era dances with Marc Casslar

April: our usual date would conflict with Easter. Come to NEFFA instead, later in the month. where there will be several vintage dance sessions.

About the Vintage Tea Dances

Vintage Dance, in general, is a name given to hisotrical social dances originally popular from about 1812 (Jane Austen's "Regency" era) to abouto 1920 (the beginning of the "Jazz Age"). Our Tea Dances cover this entire range, with a little more emphasis on the "Civil War Era" of the 1860s, and try to maintain a balance between teaching and dancing, so that it serves as both an educational and social occasion. We also serve tea and delicious refreshments, and some people like to wear historical or ethnic costumes to the dances, though they aren't required and many people don't. If you have a suitable costume, we encourage you to wear it; if you don't, we encourage you not to worry about it. Sometimes we feel inspired to decorate the dance hall in accordance with a theme of the month, sometimes we don't; for example, one of last year's dances had a Japanese theme, with some dancers wearing Kimono and green tea and mochi for refreshments; another had a Victorian English theme, with crumpets and scones.

Each afternoon is a mix of "set dances" and "couple dances". The set dances are always taught, and suitable for all ages and experience or lack thereof. Examples of set dances would be The Virginia Reel, Sir Roger de Coverley, The Quadrille, and Les Lanciers, or Lancers. We usually focus on one or two couple dances to teach, and let the others take care of themselves. People with practically ANY other dance experience will know some of the couple dances, such as waltz, polka, schottische, galop, tango, foxtrot, one-step, and two-step.

Some couple dances will be taught at the beginner level, but more advanced dancers will be free to practice their more advanced steps. Some months, we will teach beginning steps for a number of different dances of the period; some months, we will look at a particular dance and dive into it a little more deeply.

To provide a focal point for costuming, decorations, and refreshments, we sometimes choose a theme, such as "the 1893 World's Fair", or "Japan", or "New York". Sometimes we don't. If you have ideas for suitable themes and want to help plan decorations and refreshments, please get in touch!

Each Tea Dance features a particular time and place, with refreshments, decorations, and featured dance chosen to match the theme. These themes are only for inspiration; dancers are not required to dress according to the theme, or even to the era, though it's lots of fun if you do. Some themes inspire us more than others; sometimes we will have elaborate refreshments but simple decorations, sometimes elaborate decorations and simple (well, simpler) refreshments. The refreshments will always be quite lavish, though; it's part of what we do.

We have a selection of different teachers through the year, and mix up time periods. As mentioned before, our historical range extends from the Regency Era (1811-1820) through the beginning of the Jazz Age (1920s). In dance terms, that's from the introduction of the Waltz to the heyday of the Fox Trot and Charleston; it also covers the gradual replacement of the Country Dance by the Quadrille, the rise and fall of the Polka; the Galop or Galopede; the introduction of the Tango, the One Step, and the Hesitation Waltz; and briefly popular dances such as the Maxixe, the Half and Half, and the Lulu Fado. That's a lot of dances and only skims the high points. We don't do all the dances on any one afternoon. We won't necessarily even do them all over the course of the year.

Previous Experience? Partners?

You don't need any previous experience, nor to bring your own partner. Some dances will always be taught, and we change partners frequently, in fact, during the entirety of the historical range we cover, it was considered very rude to dance more than twice at one dance with any single partner, even your own spouse.

Music

We usually have recorded music, selected by our instructors to suit the period and the dances. This year, we hope to occasionally have a local band, The Ad-Hoc Waltz and Quadrille Band, but details have not yet been nailed down.

Admission

Admission this year is $6; this includes tea, pastries, and sometimes other special treats. Student rate is only $4.

Volunteers

If you are interested in helping serve refreshments, or in making refreshments, or helping decorate the hall, or publicity, or flier design, please contact Michael: (617) 964-7684, or email .

Dress & Shoes

There is no specific dress code. When pressed for space, we say: "Modern casual dress and historical semi-formal afternoon wear are all welcome." Since we have more space here, let's examine that in more detail.

Historical Costume: If you have historical costumes, the period of each dance is usually shown in the schedule, and varies from month to month. Ideally, you would wear something "nice" intended as afternoon wear, not work clothes, not formal evening wear. However, any period costume will be welcomed.

Making do with things from your closet: If you want to dress up, but haven't done this before, you can call our clothing historians, Katy and Barbara, and they can help you choose the most appopriate of those clothes that you already own. Contact me to get their phone numbers: (617) 964-7684, or email .

Modern Costume: If you aren't interested in historical costume, you're still absolutely welcome. Please wear something "nice"; for gentlemen, we prefer something better than jeans and a T-shirt and ask that you not wear shorts; for ladies, in addition, we prefer that you not wear a very short skirt, and skirts or dresses are preferred rather than trousers. But, these are preferences, not requirements.

Shoes: We have a beautiful venue with a nice floor in good condition, and we ask that you bring a pair of shoes that are not street shoes, or that have been cleaned very well, to dance in. Suede soled dance shoes are excellent. For ladies, for ragtime and nineteen-twenties themed dances, medium height heels can be helpful; so-called "Character Shoes" are ideal. For 19th century dances, flats are preferred.

LOCATION

FALL: There are no 2008 Fall dances, but we urge you to check out the Salem 2nd and 4th Friday series.

SPRING: We will return to our usual location, the First Unitarian Society of Newton, in January.

Directions? Public Transportation?

There is a parking lot, which is free on Sundays, at the intersection of Washington Street (Route 16) and Highland Street. It's owned by a bank which is closed on Sundays. There is also on-street parking on both Washington and Highland Streets, as well as other side streets. Finally, there are a couple of large parking lots behind the storefronts on the south side of Washington Street.

The Framingham/Worcester branch of the Commuter Rail has a stop, the West Newton stop, directly behind the First Unitarian Society.

Mailing List

If you aren't already on our mailing list, it might be a good idea to join; it's low traffic, and high signal to noise ratio. It's a closed list, and so far that's been working to keep out the spam. Postings are almost exclusively notices about upcoming vintage dances, with a small number of allied events thrown in. To join, send an email to me at .