Winter and spring in Vienna is definitely synonymous with Ball Season here, all sorts of groups, some based on profession, some based on interest, and various other groupings seem to have their own unique ball. My friend Ruth works at the UN, and in anticipation of their Spring Ball, several of her co-workers decided to get a table, and had an extra space, so I was offered a spot, which I of course took! So this past Saturday evening we got all dressed up and headed to the Hofburg for a fancy night out.
The Hofburg, really it's a large palace complex downtown, this is just one wing of it.
Ruth and me on the entrance steps
The ballroom. Not the largest of the ballrooms within the Hofburg, but this was the main room for this event (it did also spread out into other rooms nearby)
The dancers from a dance school here in Vienna, ready to open the Ball with a waltz.
In the jazzier portion of the evening, we had Andrew Young with his saxophone and his band...made for an interesting range of music throughout the night.
The Bratislava Metropolitan Orchestra providing some good Strauss music to begin the evening (Frühlingsstimmen of course)
Such a gorgeous space
And now for the waltzing to begin...
And now everybody can waltz!
Just so nobody gets the wrong idea that it's all waltzing and highbrow orchestra music all night, here are some pictures from the midnight show...with various tap, jazz and hip hop routines by the dance school kids.
Lots of dancing!
The whole night was super fun. We had a great time listening to music and dancing and just enjoying the overall experience. It's hard to capture photos of a lot of these things, but it really does come down to the experience as a whole rather than what individual images or even videos can illustrate. I definitely need to brush up a bit on my ballroom dancing skills, but I look forward to whatever other Balls I am able to attend during my time here!
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