Welcome! Enjoy highlights from this past evening, in which I was treated to a delightful dinner and dance formal in celebration of Austrian culture.
In this article, expect a variety of colorful photos of the main highlights including: dinner service, formal attire, ballroom decorations, floral arrangements, cultural significance, and of course the dance entertainment.
Welcome and Arrival
Upon entering the annual Viennese Ball, guest were invited to a grand ballroom for a formal affair filled with music, dancing, and fine dinning.
At the guest entry table, a formal arrangement of flowers welcomed us towards the main ballroom. Early daffodils, tulips, and gobs of roses were a luscious treat to find in late January.
An elegant checkered dance floor was the focal point of the grand ballroom, and dinning tables were set around on all sides. Everything was nicely laid out with plenty of space for guests to socialize and greet one another.
The Viennese Ball, as I learned, is a cultural event in our area meant to celebrate Austrian culture. This event is held annually to raise awareness of Austria's vibrant culture that lives locally. They accomplish all this by hosting this event for guests, treating them to an authentic gourmet dinner, and in mingling Austrian club members with American guests during the highly popular dance events.
Guests were shown where to sit at an assigned table in the room, and guests were allowed to select their own seating arrangements, and table hop with other guests if they wished.
My group consisted of fellow dancers from our own ballroom studio, where I teach as a dance instructor. Tonight my friends and co-workers had chipped in and bought me a ticket to attend, and I was greatly enjoying the opportunity to share in this magical event with them.
Looking at the menu with full appetite, I made some small talk about the pronunciation of some of the Austrian language on display. Most everything was unfamiliar to me. What is a gurken? An osso buco? Schocoladentorte was one of the largest words I've ever read. I think I butchered its pronunciation, making it sound a bit more like Chaka-Khan-Laden-Tor-Tay.
A small group of us had all arrived over an hour early, not sure exactly what we would should expect. Already familiar with each other, it was easy to entertain ourselves with conversations and compliments of everyone's lovely jewelry, outfits, and beauty for the special occasion. I am pictured above on the far left.
Minding our manners, we stared at the bread and wrapped chocolates with salivating mouths, until the remaining guests arrived, and dinner was served. Two sets of forks, knives, and spoons. Mug, saucer, wine glass, and water glass. All was arranged with care and polished to a brilliant gleam. Multiple course offerings were on the menu.
Dinner is Served
The salad was neatly arranged, with a marinate dressing. Cucumbers rinds were grooved on the outside, adding a crisp texture to the lightly cured herbal infusion of acid and oils that surrounded it. Similarly the perfectly ripened tomatoes had a matching flavor, and I especially enjoyed that the chef knew which type of tomato would best hold its shape on a fork and remain juicy, tender, sweet for every bite.
The cabbage salad was a bit like a marinated cole-slaw, also very crisp and yet tender. Pieces of soft and chewy bacon ham livened up the dish enough to leave the carnivore in me hungry for more helpings of salad.
The main course did not disappoint. The beef tenderloin (I was thrilled to be offered a second serving by another table guest) was a thick cut with a deep sear, and a cooked to a perfect medium rare. It was almost as soft and tender as eating cake, and the wine juices were as richly flavored as any honey barbecue sauce I have ever tasted. Not a drop of fatty oil pooled onto the plate, as the meat absorbed all the red wine juices like a sponge.
The potato cake was golden and crispy on the outside, yet still simple to break with a fork. Beneath the fragile crust were softened cubed potatoes, infused with butter, cheese, herbs, and seasoning. Beside the potato cake was served an egg souffle of spinach and onion. The herbal overtones of the spinach flavor was completely infused into the mouse-like egg, and the buttery onions had fully rendered the spinach into a soft and tender treat.
The red cabbage was also rendered down to have a softer flavor profile, with only a slight acid glaze, meant to help dissolve the fats and oils from the pallet.
The dessert was a simple chocolate glazed cake bar. The cake was a crumble of chestnut pieces and spices. With the rich cream and raspberry sauce, the porous cake and nuts wicked up all the sugary flavors into every bite. Creamy sweet, tart fruity, silky chocolate, and soft nuts provided romantic flair-a-plenty.
The servers were all extremely professional and helpful throughout the dinner service, always ready to provide coffee, tea, ice water, wine, or anything we requested. Vegetarian alternative meals were provided as needed, as well as pudding desserts for those with allergies to nuts.
Ballet
The evening ceremonies kicked off after dinner with a pair of dances by the Northwest Portland Ballet.
The first piece was soft and melodious, with formation changes that reminded us of the beautiful roses in full bloom all around us.
The second piece was much more lively and energetic. The music instantly reminded us of the older folk style of Austria, with clapping, jumping, leaping, and spinning. The dancers performed with smiles and joy, and we knew that they were enjoying the performance as much as we enjoyed spectating.
Live Music and Viennese Waltz
The reason many of the guests attend this annual event, is actually for the dancing festivities. Innocent gossip was floating around the ballroom that some of the guests were planning to attend various Viennese Balls across the country throughout the month of February, because they enjoy the merriment so much. They must really love living it up in life.
In the Austrian style, the dancing is very fast, lively, and full of bouncing and jumpy steps. Viennese Waltz is danced with a lilting skipping action and throwing of the hips into a pendulum action. Polka is danced with a bounce, a chasse, and a leaping turn, and a similar hip lifting action. Laughter often occurs as dance couples harmlessly bump into, block, or swerve around slower dancers to accelerate into higher speeds.
The band proved to have a wide range of talents and abilities, able to play classic Tangos as well as lively American Swing beats. I especially enjoyed their rock beat version of In The Mood. This was not a boring, beat-less symphony quartet, as they appear. They had a rocking drummer on a full drum set, a lounge style singer, and a jazzy clarinetist who could also trade off with the saxophone to give us a cool, mellow musical vibe. It is really rare that I get to dance to a live band that actually knows how to play good dance songs, and pulls them off with talent, originality, and good swing in every beat.
A friend of mine posed for me, as she played the part of the Tango dancer with the rose. She was having so much fun acting like a kid again, I did not have to ask her to put the rose in her mouth. I only had to ask her to stop dancing so I could snap the photo.
The only problem was that the floor was always so crowded. I had partners wanting to dance every song. I wasn't wearing my normal dance shoes with a smooth sole, and the floor surface had sort of a rubbery finish making it difficult to spin and brush the feet. Dancers adjusted to the crowded floor as best as they could, doing simple step-tap walks, sways, and rocks. People were having so much fun with getting their friends to dance with them to the youth-renewing music, the formal room suddenly became a barnyard hoe-down of old-fashioned, old-world family fun. It is not often that I find partner dancing this popular outside of ballroom dance events, however we did later find out that eight different ballroom dance studios had chosen to attend on this particular evening, which really added to the popularity of the dance floor I am sure.
In the later part of the evening, we even learned a Quadrille, which is an old style dance in which two lines of dancers do various bows and turns in an order called out by the speaker with the couples they are facing. All this is done in three or four rounds in which the music gets faster and faster each round. By the final set, you've bowed 10 times, spun around your partner, and traded your partner with another lady three times, all faster than you can say Schocoladentorte.
During the Quadrille and some of the social dance mixers, I got to dance with and meet some of the Austrian club members, and I knew right away the special charm of their unique culture. These people come from Old Europe, where their ancestors taught their children to greet all the neighbors in the village with smiles, handshakes, hugs, and kisses every morning and evening. In the small, crowded villages, they would have to be kind and friendly with everyone in order to sell cheese, milk, fabric, wool, or what-not. I can see that spirit in them still to this day, and yet so warmly embellished in the royalties of fine cuisine, fashion, and musical trends.
The third and final set ended when the band played a sweet rendition of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wounderful World". Guests were invited to take home the lovely roses as a romantic gesture. All around, we had a fantastic evening together from beginning to end. I can't remember the last time I stayed up until Midnight because I was having so much fun with friends and dancing, but this occasion will definitely hold that special memory in mind.
Take notes. Valentines Day is just right around the corner.
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