When the Trades of Vienna Go Dancing — Epoche A2
The season when the trades go dancing In January in Vienna, the coffee-house owners hold a ball. So do the confectioners. The hunters hold theirs in green traditional dress, the lawyers hold one, and the Philharmonic's ball fills the golden hall of the Musikverein. Between New Year and the start of Lent the city holds several hundred balls, and a great many of them belong to a profession. They all open the same way. Young couples — the debutantes, the girls in white — dance an opening they practised for weeks. Then the master of ceremonies calls "Alles Walzer!" — everything waltzes — and from that moment the floor belongs to every guest. At midnight many balls dance a quadrille together: a caller shouts the figures, half the room turns the wrong way, and that is part of the fun. None of this is only for the rich. The famous Opera Ball costs a fortune, but the confectioners' ball or the flower ball sells ordinary tickets, and many Viennese teenagers take a dance-school course at about sixteen so that the waltz is ready when the invitations come. My neighbour drives a city bus. He goes to two balls every winter, in a suit that lives the rest of the year in a bag, and he chooses them from the season's calendar in November, the way other people plan their summer.