Down Peacock Alley

A selection of delightful acclaimed Palm Court Theatre Orchestra specializes in performing authentic arrangements of salon, theatre and dance band music from 1900 -1945.

The Palm Court Theatre Orchestra conjures up a golden age of musical entertainment with superb skill, perfect style and infectious good humour.

The Cake Walk was a strutting jaunty walk with elements of the Two Step danced to a syncopated melody which was usually developed over three or four section. Rag Time had similar musical elements to the Cake Walk, as first confined to formal syncopation and then developing into a more commercial popular version, taking America by storm.

The Tango, though rather more risqué than Rag was considered more genteel. Tango clubs opened, Tango tea-dances were held and books of etiquette on giving Tango parties were published.

The Charleston, a dance which epitomized the roaring twenties, was surprisingly short lived. Its distinctive rhythm first emerged in 1923, with the hit Charleston being composed in 1925 when it became the new ballroom craze. Later in 1926 it became tamed and civilized into the Quickstep.

The most long-lived of them all was the Foxtrot. Many other dances featured a kind of ’Trot’. It became simplified during the First World War, and gradually it evolved into the smooth gliding walk which reflected the mood of the sombre Thirties.