I didn't think it was actually going to happen but I finally got to go to a real Viennese ball! It was everything I imagined and more. I definitely felt like a princess, minus the grace and poise (and the prince charming) of course... but a princess nonetheless!
It was the Rotkreuzball (Red Cross Ball) and was very similar to prom, only, the ball had real class. I went with a bunch of music students and did the typical dance things: went out to dinner first, took lots of pictures, and danced all night long.
Most of the people there were older Viennese citizens so everyone was in ball gowns and tuxedoes. The ball was in the Rathaus which is a beautiful government building that looks like a castle.
The theme had something to do with Japan so the tables had beautiful white flowers and hand made paper cranes everywhere. We unfortunately didn't realize that there was nowhere to sit if you didn't reserve a table so as cheap college students, we had to stand all night and but luckily there was plenty of dancing to do!
When we walked in, it was like being in Hollywood. They stop you and take your picture on the red carpet but also hand you gifts! I took home a pair of gold earrings, some decorations, and the best gift of all, pastries.
The ball opened with the presentation of the debutantes, all in white poofy dresses, tiaras, gloves, etc. and they waltzed beautifully. There was a full, live orchestra which was so awesome and after the beautiful young people danced, the dance floor opened up to anyone who wanted to dance. After watching the debutantes waltz I was pretty intimidated so I sat the first dance out. Waltzing looked way faster than I remembered and I couldn't remember any of the steps.
But someone asked me to dance by the second song so I said 'what the heck,' jumped right in, and well, it was entertaining for both me and the bystanders. I was first a little shocked just to be in Vienna waltzing to a live orchestra in basically a castle. Second, nervous that I would trip all over the place and embarrass my poor partner, and third, getting spun around like a drying machine! It was like bumper cars out there. Those old people have a lot of spunk! Since everybody is spinning around you don't really have control of what's happening, especially if you're the lady. So everyone is bumping into each other. I did okay and luckily my first partner spoke english very well and was nice enough to show me the steps. I definitely looked like a newb, watching my feet the whole time, but I think I did respectably. At least for my standards.
After a bit of dancing there were some solo performances which included two very beautiful and very dramatic singers. The guy was a typical beautiful Austrian who had a great voice. We thought he might be someone famous so we took a fan girl picture with him.
After the concert things got a little crazy. Just kidding, more like a lot crazy! The line dancing started at midnight and this was when the party really started. Anyone that was left went out onto the dance floor and made huge lines. The orchestra played some really fun polka-ish music and everyone did the steps to some super complicated line dancing choreography. We wanted to join but it looked so difficult. I wasn't going to do any line dancing but then our whole group decided to just go for and we made such huge fools of ourselves but it was such a blast. The orchestra would play for a minute or two, stop, and then play again but it got faster each time. You march forward, backwards, bow, criss-cross, spin around, and do all sorts of things that we never quite got the hang of. The people watching were cracking up at our group trying to figure out what the heck was going on but 2 min. into the line dancing we gave up on trying to be poised and graceful and just had fun. The best part of the line dancing was when in between each set couples would gallop all the way down the row and back to their spot. I galloped once with a friend and caused a trainwreck haha. Everyone probably thought we had too much champagne but oh well!
After that I forgot about how much my feet hurt and danced for the next two hours. There was a 'disco' room that had fun lights and american music (people were still waltzing in there which was weird but we showed them how it's really done) and a waltzing only room.
I danced with one more Austrian, Johannes, who was super nice and tried to teach me some different dances but I unfortunately started getting worse! I accidentally made him trip big time and I could not keep up with the tempo. My friend got it all on video and I'd post it here but you'll probably see it on youtube as the next most viral video. Ay carumba.
All in all, it was one of the most memorable experiences I think I'll have this semester and I'm so glad I was able to go! Although I looked like bambi trying to walk on ice out there I was definitely inspired and really want to start learning how to ballroom dance. Look out dancing with the starts, here I come!
The theme had something to do with Japan so the tables had beautiful white flowers and hand made paper cranes everywhere. We unfortunately didn't realize that there was nowhere to sit if you didn't reserve a table so as cheap college students, we had to stand all night and but luckily there was plenty of dancing to do!
When we walked in, it was like being in Hollywood. They stop you and take your picture on the red carpet but also hand you gifts! I took home a pair of gold earrings, some decorations, and the best gift of all, pastries.
The ball opened with the presentation of the debutantes, all in white poofy dresses, tiaras, gloves, etc. and they waltzed beautifully. There was a full, live orchestra which was so awesome and after the beautiful young people danced, the dance floor opened up to anyone who wanted to dance. After watching the debutantes waltz I was pretty intimidated so I sat the first dance out. Waltzing looked way faster than I remembered and I couldn't remember any of the steps.
But someone asked me to dance by the second song so I said 'what the heck,' jumped right in, and well, it was entertaining for both me and the bystanders. I was first a little shocked just to be in Vienna waltzing to a live orchestra in basically a castle. Second, nervous that I would trip all over the place and embarrass my poor partner, and third, getting spun around like a drying machine! It was like bumper cars out there. Those old people have a lot of spunk! Since everybody is spinning around you don't really have control of what's happening, especially if you're the lady. So everyone is bumping into each other. I did okay and luckily my first partner spoke english very well and was nice enough to show me the steps. I definitely looked like a newb, watching my feet the whole time, but I think I did respectably. At least for my standards.
After a bit of dancing there were some solo performances which included two very beautiful and very dramatic singers. The guy was a typical beautiful Austrian who had a great voice. We thought he might be someone famous so we took a fan girl picture with him.
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| Francisco (from Chile) and Andrea (Chicago) |
After that I forgot about how much my feet hurt and danced for the next two hours. There was a 'disco' room that had fun lights and american music (people were still waltzing in there which was weird but we showed them how it's really done) and a waltzing only room.
I danced with one more Austrian, Johannes, who was super nice and tried to teach me some different dances but I unfortunately started getting worse! I accidentally made him trip big time and I could not keep up with the tempo. My friend got it all on video and I'd post it here but you'll probably see it on youtube as the next most viral video. Ay carumba.
All in all, it was one of the most memorable experiences I think I'll have this semester and I'm so glad I was able to go! Although I looked like bambi trying to walk on ice out there I was definitely inspired and really want to start learning how to ballroom dance. Look out dancing with the starts, here I come!
