A grand Ball experience

Now a few colleagues and myself got enrolled as debutants for Austrian Ball that was being organised by the Embassy of Austria in India. As debutants, we were expected to do the opening waltz. Not a big deal, especially since I was already familiar with the basic forms of the waltz. Excited as we were, little did we know of the great deal of sweat and toil that would eventually go into doing that "simple" waltz!

We had daily practice for two weeks at the British School hall. And strangely enough, a lot of the debutants were high school students themselves from various embassy schools of Delhi. It's lovely wooden flooring was perfect for us budding dancers to shake a leg on. At a corner stood an old baby grand piano, and with the wooden flooring the hall had a neat feel to it. The first week of practice, we were trained on the basic Viennese Waltz by Rakesh. Each practice session began with Wanny taking us through the intense stretches and warm-ups for dancing. Had we known the warm-ups were gonna be so difficult, we wouldn't have enrolled!!!! But those painful warm ups went a long way in helping us for the final Ball. Now although the school's hall was quite big, we swirled and bumped and staggered and stumbled around in a big circle of frenzy every time. Never ever getting the waltz at the right speed, or the right leg forward, it was quite exasperating for us and for those watching us (the organisers!!). Rakesh began to overlook our inability to waltz and moved on to teach us some Cha Cha.

The second week of practice began with Heinz and his wife teaching us the entrance march, something Heinz kept calling "Danske Marsh". Kind of a mass drill that one would do at a sports event, except for the gracefulness and cross-legged steps, the danske marsh was an interesting learning experience. The only problem was there were too many steps involved, and remembering it in the right sequence was a huge task! Soon after teaching us the march and a few minutes of Waltzing (which hardly hepled), the few of us would follow Heinz and his wife to the Hyatt where he trained some of the Ball invitees on other ball dances - Cha Cha, Tango, Boogie, Polka, etc. Learning so many different moves was a fun experience while at the same time a good socialising opportunity.

Finally the day of the Ball arrived. We arrived early to practice and do a reharsal of the entire sequence. Some of us were still not able to pull off the Viennese waltz. But the march was coming up very nice and synchronised.

So the confidence was in the air. And we had the entire Austrian chamber orchestra in full arrangement onstage to play for us the march. I guess they were some 30 odd musicians! And my, what a feeling to be played to by a classical orchestra. Just for comparison, you don't get played to by classical orchestras any more unless you are the queen of England! Now, most of the guys had already changed into their suits, so after the rehearsals we took a break to let the girl change into their gowns. The transformation a white flowing gown can do to some of those truant looking brats along with some help with mascara and blush is mind-boggling. My partner didn't look that bad either (for all the slippery feet and temper tantrums she threw!!).

Waiting for the ball to commence was a nail-biting experience. As the crowd of rich and powerful people of Delhi filled into the area; we saw diplomats shake hands, and their stlylishly dressed up wives/partners rub cheeks with their counterparts. The smell of perfume, wine and power filled the air.













When the orchestra struck up, everyone went silent. We were invited to the floor to take our positions and so we did. Everything after this went on like a fairy tale. Everyone watched in awe as the beautifully dressed up danseuses and their partners took up place on the temporarily built wooden dance floor. The orchestra first played the national anthems of both India and Austria. Following which it started playing the entrance march sequence. A rousing applause awaited at the end!!!







































After the march was the Viennese waltz - which was a series of high speed swirls is a huge circle across the floor. It was like a planetary motion of all couples spinning and revolving around the floor. Thankfully that didn't last too long. After which we got off the floor and let the dignitaries dance their way through the evening. We did go an do a few more numbers, especially the nicer ones :) - tango, cha-cha and jive. An evening of great entertainment and amazing wines! to be remembered for a long time.