Burrito West Blog

Every ball at a royal palace deserves its own post!

Going to Vienna to dance is an extravagance, but man oh man is it nice. This year going to Vienna from Vancouver we were much more charmed by the old European architecture than when we went from Poland, so it had a new veneer of specialness to it all.

First, the dress.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time dress hunting online. Searching for something really affordable, ideally not made by child labour overseas. Impossible, you say! And you'd be right, I think. So I started checking thrift stores, hoping for something I could take to a local designer to make acceptable. And I got lucky. Found this satin ball gown as good as new for $20 and it fit almost perfectly. I actually left it at the thrift store, went home, realized I was being stupid and went back to get it.

I went to local designer, Shelley Klassen of Blushing Boutique and together we modified the dress to be 1) not strapless, and 2) a bit more dramatic with a gathering of lace falling from my shoulder and trailing down the back.

Here are the before photos - not bad for $20, right?


Here's the after:


So for the second time I got to go to a fancy event wearing a custom-made one of a kind gown that cost me less than $300. I was very pleased.  Here's a link to last time, if you're curious.

This time I made sure to have it hemmed short enough for ballroom dancing! Win!

The Ball.
We went to the TU Ball (technical university ball) again this year. It's one of the more affordable balls held in the royal palace and we enjoyed it last time. Also there's a race car parked in the lobby of the palace, so that's a bonus.

My sister and her boyfriend joined us from London and attending the event with other people was fun - that's what was missing from our first event for sure.

Arriving at the palace is a bit surreal - walking up to a place that would otherwise be a tourist attraction and getting to walk right in. After getting tickets and coat/shoe check taken care of, we headed up the grand staircase (red carpet included).

We skipped the opening performance because you really can't see anything of it unless you have a table in the main ballroom. I have heard other balls put screens up in the other rooms so more people can watch, so maybe one day we'll see what happens. Sadly we showed up late enough that we also missed the photographers they have stationed on the stairs taking souvenir photos. My cellphone photos would have to do.
We toured the palace, checked out all the rooms. Kicked people out of our reserved table in the Wintergarden room and had some drinks. Spent our evening alternating between dancing and recovering at our table. Michelle brought her GoPro and I did a few dances holding it on Peter's shoulder so you can see what it looks like from my perspective when doing the viennese waltz - see below for a hastily - assembled video.

Dancing in these beautiful, grand spaces is amazing. I can't really put it into words.

The 2:30am quadrille (formation dance) was insanely crowded and a gong show. I think maybe 30% of people actually know what they're doing. Watching the quadrille is a highlight; very entertaining. Here's a video I took of the quadrille in 2014 (the one in the video was less of a gong show, for reference).

Michelle and Nathan were very good sports, being non-dancers. They left at 3:30am and Peter and I only lasted another hour. The dance floor gets wonderfully open starting at about 3am. Maybe next time we'll show up very late and stay until closing at 5am to maximize our dancing fun. I'm curious to see how they get everyone out of the palace at closing.

The Photos. (The rest are on flickr here)

Peter and I dancing around 3:30am. I am holding a go-pro. You can see the blue in my hair matches my dress. ;)

The video
I put together some of the clips so you can get a feel for the dancing.  Included is gopro footage of what a Viennese waltz looks like from my perspective (answer, dizzying).




Pressing questions I know you must have:

Were we able to do the viennese waltz this year?
Kind of? We were definitely more prepared than last time (practice and many lessons) and we did do better, but it's still very challenging. The dance floor is sooo crowded for most of the night and the music is sooo fast. And traffic jams on the dance floor happy so easily. A few more years of practice and I think we'll nail it.

Think you'll go again?
Probably. We really like Vienna, it's a relaxed place to visit and the ball is really fun for us - a chance to use all the dance skills we've aquired. It's surprisingly hard to find opportunities to waltz and foxtrot in regular life. We might try to join this Waltz Week thing to meet other dancers, it sounds fun:  http://www.waltzweekinvienna.com/

How hot and sweaty was it?
Dancing in formal wear is very hot and sweaty. All those images of civilized people being all proper at balls back in the day - erase those now, everyone must have been incredibly hot and sweaty.

Pro tip if you ever go to a ball - dancers who know what they're doing will rotate around the outside of the dance floor.  If  you can't keep up with that, you want to hang out in the centre of the dance floor so you aren't in the way. Traffic jams during a viennese waltz are awful.