Ballet school holds 'Winter Celebration'

The Flathead Valley Jazz Society presents its winter season of tea dances at the Kalispell Eagles Club.

Dances will be held every second Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m. and are open to the public. Families are encouraged to attend. 

A tea dance is an afternoon or early evening dance. The function evolved from the concept of the afternoon tea.

Books on Victorian era etiquette, such as “Party-giving on Every Scale,” included detailed instructions for hosting such gatherings. By 1880 it was noted, "Afternoon dances are seldom given in London, but are a popular form of entertainment in the suburbs, in garrison-towns, watering-places, etc."

In America the dances became popular in the 1920s and ’30s with the advent of Prohibition. Most often the tea cups were filled with gin instead of tea.

Tea dances have remained popular in America ever since in cities of every size.

Kalispell’s first tea dance is Sunday. The Don West All-Stars will perform.

The All-Stars include Don West, leader of the Last Chance Band and Big Sky Syncopators, on trumpet and vocals; Sandy Sanderson, of the Company Brass, on piano; Wendell Tharpe, of the Don Lawrence Orchestra and Rocky Mountain Rhythm Kings, on trombone; and Robert Spencer of Smokehouse Blues Band and Blue Onion on drums. The bass player will be announced later.

Future tea dance bands include Swingin’ on High, Swinging Light, the Pizzazz Jazz Combo and the Flathead Ragtime Society Orchestra.

The December dance will be the jazz society’s annual Christmas party, featuring the Don Lawrence Orchestra.