[1]: 29 The expected feature was a live orchestra or a small band playing light classical music, even after the invention of the phonograph.
Subsequently, the Royal Opera House in London held a world record attempt on 8 July 2010 in Trafalgar Square, with the unofficial total being 507 dancers.
[5][6] Tea dances are a common cultural reference in early 20th-century British and American fiction as a staple of genteel society.
Literary characters normally attend these receptions while visiting resort towns, especially coastal ones such as Brighton, The Hamptons, Provincetown, and Ogunquit.
The 1925 Broadway musical No, No, Nanette features a tea dance as the occasion for the plot's climax, when the main characters travel to Atlantic City, New Jersey.