LAKE TAHOE - BONANZA: April 2007

(Cotillion to teach social mkanner to Tahoe children)

By TANYA CANINO - Bonanza Editor

Seventh-grader Mitchell Comstock's fanciful Cotillion invitation was in the trash - until his mother offered a practical reason for learning social conduct.

"What happens when you're on a date and your date's dad is sitting across the table from you?" Shawn Comstock asked her son.

Once he considered the ramifications with the opposite sex, Mitchell decided to pull the invite from the garbage can and joined the first Incline Village Cotillion.

A cotillion is an opportunity to learn social dining, ballroom dance and etiquette through a series of classes. The cotillion requires boys to wear a suit coat and tie and girls to wear a dress. At the end, there is an evening where dinner is served and the students can practice their new skills.

Incline Village resident Jeanne Miraglia, who had attended cotillions while she was growing up, decided to bring the Gollatz Cotillion to Incline Village from it's Southern California base. The Gollatz Cotillion began in 1932 and is now in it's third-generation of teaching youth the social graces.

"People move here to get away from all the social pressures," said Miraglia, a mother of three. However, while Tahoe children are well versed in the outdoors and sports, they are not always ready for social situations they might encounter outside of Tahoe's active lifestyle. "Parents so realize their kids need to know how to act," she said. "I want my kids to feel comfortable in any situation." Shawn Comstock agreed, saying it's good to teach students how to act in any situation.

"Our kids never get a chance to wear sports coats," she said. "This is taking him out of his comfort zone and engaging him in different circumstances. If he was invited to the White House, I would want him to know the exact table manners to use." In the 18 communities it is offered in Southern California, the Gollatz Cotillion quickly fills up with invited guests.

In Incline Village, however, every child in third through eighth grades received an invitation. "We wanted to make it non-exclusionary," Miraglia said. "We would love to have anyone who would like to come." The cotillion costs but there are a few scholarships available for youths who cannot afford it donated by local families. "The kids will hate it when you tell then they have to go, but they'll love you for it afterwards," Miraglia said.