Ball (dance) facts for kids
A ball is a formal dance occasion. By formal is meant: people were invited, wore their best clothes ('evening attire'), and the ball was held in a splendid ballroom. In former times everyone danced, but only the wealthy went to balls. Girls had dance cards: men had to sign up to dance with them. Older people sat around the sides and watched the younger people dance. It was a society occasion.
Galleria
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A ball at Apsley House. Shows King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra dancing a quadrille, 1908.
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Ball at Eglington Castle 1839
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Almack's Assembly Rooms, London, about 1820.
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Mardi Gras Ball, 1930s
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Wedding ball of the Duc de Joyeause, 1581. Attributed to Herman van der Mast.
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Sheet music cover
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Bal de Tarda by Ramon Casas i Carbó, 1896
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by William Hogarth, 1745
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Palacio San Martín, Buenos Aires
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Ballroom of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Toronto
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Ballroom of the Canals family mansion, Tarragona
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The ballroom of the Catherine Palace, near St Petersburg
Related pages
Images for kids
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Two ladies are presented to Emperor Franz Joseph at a ball in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, painting by Wilhelm Gause (1900)
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A ball at the Russian imperial court in the 1910s
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A Finnish author Väinö Linna (left) and his translator Nils-Börje Stormbom (right) in the middle of a ball at the 1968 Independence Day reception at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland
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Five partner dance at a Colonial Ball in the Albert Hall Canberra (circa 2016) (sepia)
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An American dance card from 1884.
