Leather Daddy Disco Tea Dance

A tea dance, also called a thé dansant (French for "dancing tea"), was a dance held in the summer or autumn in the English countryside, a garden party sometimes preceded the dance.  Historically, tea was served in the afternoon, either with snacks (“low tea”) or with a full meal (“high tea” or “meat tea”). High Tea eventually moved earlier in the day, sometimes replacing the midday “luncheon” and settled around 11 o’clock, becoming the forerunner of what we know as “brunch”.

While tea dances enjoyed a revival in America after the Great War, The Great Depression of the 30’s wiped them out. Tea consumption was in steady decline in America anyways and by the 50’s, tea was largely thought of as something “your grandmother drinks”. Also, nightlife was moving later and younger. Working men and women were too busy building the American Dream to socialize so it was left to their teenaged children in the age of sockhops and the jukebox diner. Rock and roll was dark and dangerous — something you sneaked out for after dinner, not took part in before dinner.

By the 1970’s after the Stonewall riots disco music arrived and again the Tea Dance would evolve. It would now grow into a phenomenon that all of Fire Island and many other resort areas would find their way to.  Through the 70’s, gay men still had afternoon/early evening dances — usually on Sundays, in order to make the most of one’s weekend while still allowing enough time to make the afternoon public transportation back from resort to urban areas and most importantly being able to get up for Monday morning’s work.  Today the modern day Tea Dance has been adopted by the trendy, funset community (straight and gay alike) as a great way to blow off the last bit of steam before the work week begins again on Monday.

Join us for a back-to-back Tea Dance at The Fred with DJ Cody Hare of Leather Daddy Disco from Charlotte, North Carolina this Saturday and Sunday.  Warning, you'll need plenty of time on Monday-Thursday to recover from all this weekend's dancing and comradarie.