DANCING between the wars was both a popular social pastime and a serious accomplishment.
At the Temperance Hall on Saturdays and Tuesday evenings, Bygrave’s Dancing Academy taught “the new waltz”, the slow fox-trot and something called the Yale Blues.
Billy Normington’s Elite Dance Band was one of many – the Imperial, the Rhythmic, the Ambassadors, the Commanders – which catered for busy Saturday-nights on the ballroom circuit.
In the first few weeks of 1937, Billy Normington’s Band played at a Keighley Road Club Grand Dance in the Municipal Hall, an Oakworth Parish Church event in Holden Hall, and Baths Hall dances on behalf of the Keighley Amateur Swimming Club, the Park Lane Cricket Club and the Highfield Old Scholars’ Association.
Five of these Elite musicians have been identified as Cyril White, George Allen, T Kaberry, Tom Joy, Billy Normington and Sidney Townend.
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