tea dance

noun

1. a dance held at teatime.

tea dance

noun

1. a dance held in the afternoon at which tea is served

Word History and Origins

Origin of tea dance¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Everyone dressed as if for Sunday morning service — but the event morphed midway into a Sunday afternoon tea dance, with the crowd grooving under the disco balls to gospel-inflected house music, evoking the roof-raising atmosphere that made the club famous back in the day.

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Northern Ireland is marking VE Day with a series of events, including a tea dance at Belfast City Hall.

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In Belfast, there will be guided tours of wartime landmarks and a "tea dance" hosted in the City Hall.

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Some favored the social gatherings that featured an open floor, where they could buy a ticket to what is known as the afternoon tea dance or the night dance.

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The recent presentation of Balanchine’s “Nutcracker” — which replaced the hugely popular Stowell/Sendak version starting in 2015 — toned down some stereotypes in the ballet by, for instance, changing some aspects of choreography in the second act’s Chinese Tea Dance that felt caricaturing.

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