As I have traveled extensively, I always found the time and opportunity to use my dance training to good practice meeting people and having fun. Many of those occasions, however, led to some fascinating experiences, as the one I tell below, just as it occurred.

The Formal

The ornate ceiling fan slowly twisted above the marbled lobby as guests milled about. Standing at the top of the Grand Staircase I witnessed the wide expanse open below me. Waterfall rapids of red-carpeted steps cascaded down to the parquet floor below, then spilled out into a fantastic ballroom rotunda, surrounded by eighteen striated marble columns, each three feet thick, and bordered by red velvet curtains draped from brass rails.

The marble columns projected to a soaring 70-foot ceiling embellished with multi-colored and gold leaf designs and a stunning 35-foot Tiffany stained-glass skylight framing a crystal chandelier. In the ballroom, every furniture piece was tinged with gold fringe and to the left an elevated platform carpeted in deep green set the stage for a full string orchestra. Attendants in tails and white gloves roamed around the room, taking care that no guest was neglected.

The Rotunda, Jefferson Hotel

The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond is an historic landmark, and tonight was the social event of the year--their annual white-tie dance affair. Their guest books have included nine U.S. Presidents, the Barrymore, Vanderbilt and Whitney families and such notable celebrities as Gertrude Stein, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, Charlie Chaplin, Sarah Bernhardt, and now, yours truly.

Generally, before business travel, I like to check to see if there is any dance event planned for the day of arrival. I find that dance participation is a great way to meet new people and break up the routine. Trained dancers (especially male) always have the opportunity to successfully break into a new social affair and to immediately enjoy good company. I have found that to be true in London, Austria, Scotland, Tucson, Salt Lake, Toronto, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, and New York - wherever I travel. My good fortune now brought me to Virginia in time for this event.

A white-tie affair is the ultimate in dress. In the case of Richmond, you need a tail suit, not just a tuxedo, and you need a pique white tie, of course. Richmond affairs are for the old money set, which is rapidly disappearing. Composed of former plantation owners, you have to be born into the society to be "in". If you do not have old money, then you are still an outsider, regardless the size of your bank account.

Moreover, the Richmond money is shrinking rapidly as landowners sell off their holdings to pay taxes. In many cases, one-proud plantations now only contained the manor house. That fact still did not detract from the general attitude of upper-class bearing. As my own ancestors traced back to a roving band of Germanic barbarians who fought with clubs, I have to make my own class, rather than inherit it.

Now, people with lots of money generally have little talent for dancing, so I needed a dance partner or I would just be like all the others, standing around making small talk, sampling the canapés and always holding a glass of something. A call to the local USABDA chapter secured an interest for a "silver level competitor, in International and American style". Issuing a specification for a dance partner at a social event would normally be seen as the ultimate act of hubris, but in this case, dancers understand such things.

Tonight was a special night, so I simply asked that a proper lady meet me on the dance floor in her competition gown.

And there she was, across the hall, standing next to a group of ladies busily chatting away, dressed in pink and white.

A hush settled over the room as the orchestra members made their way onto the platform. They began their opening unstructured symphonic tuning ritual as I walked down the Grand Staircase. It was this staircase that inspired the scene in Gone with the Wind, where Rhett Butler carried Scarlett O'Hara upstairs. The movie did not show what happened next, but I remember that Scarlett seemed to be very happy the following morning.

After a brief visit to the orchestra conductor, I introduced myself to my evening dance partner. The lady, whom I never met before, was a very charming brunette, passed me to her friends, who were also similarly dressed. We discussed dance competitions as the room filled up with the guests, now positioning themselves around the room. The event organizer announced the affair of the season and the orchestra conductor immediately launched into some nondescript Schumann to fill up the introductory time.

We mingled around the room acting as if we owned the place, smiling and remarking about the number of Bentleys and Jaguars in the parking lot. Certainly from a dress standpoint, we were completely in style, though the lady did not wear the obligatory Mink. (Those things are just too hot anyway).

Expensive social affairs such as this are mostly about small talk and a display of dress and jewelry. Even in Vienna during the year-end Viennese Ball Festival, you cannot dance until two in the morning, or until the "people" display thins out-a waste of a perfectly good venue. In our case, we had to find areas to dance away from the open ballroom, for waltzes and foxtrots were performed in abysmal form by the local glitterati, and all their steps devolved into shuffles, which sadly meandered into the center of the floor.

But the music was wonderful, the lady was pretty and talented, and the selections grand for dancing. The orchestra played popular melodies from the 50's and 60's as well as some intermixed classical. So we found our dance direction in a slalom of marble pillars stationed around the room, yet out of the way of the milling buzz.

Who cares if our direction is around, in and out of the pillars? We navigated with long strides and luxuriated in the fulsome sound of the orchestra. No recorded music here. Tonight is truly genuine. And this gave us time to become accommodated as a dancing couple and for me to keep my lead extra light but positive.

There is something unique to the dance experience that happens when a couple becomes familiar with the moves of their partner. It is not the choreography of the movements, but the timing and placement of the bodies which, when properly coordinated, result in the feeling of an incredible lightness--the feeling that you only weigh fifty pounds, and can fly across the floor with liquidity and perfection.

But tonight movement was difficult as the milling, mustached, minked mob was everywhere, filling up the floor as they trudged or shuffled around, giving little path for real movement. Still, we blazed a path in and around the columns, sometimes catching curious stares from the terpsichorean-challenged participants.

"Now we must be prepared for the moment when we can seize the floor", I briefed my partner, and that meant we must practice a long-reach International group.

The open weave / 3-step / fallaway / telespin group has real advantages in a floor seizure operation. Even before you get to the fallaway, the extended 16 prior steps can cover forty feet - in this case, 2/3 of the hall.

If you are unfamiliar with this, the patterns involve eight quick steps in an open left turn (open weave), a forward progression (3-step) into the fallaway (a pattern which places the man and woman to "fall away" from each other and proceed rapidly to the side) followed by the telespin (a fast pivot of the man and woman on the same forward foot).

However, the time was not yet, and we are guests, not performers, and we had no gravitas.

Now at 11:30 at night, the orchestra continued in a smooth rendition of a favorite - Long Ago and Far Away. For some reason, the dance floor thinned remarkably. In spite of the gravitas paucity, and seeing the opportunity to seize the floor in a non-intrusive manner, I led my partner to the right of the orchestra platform and then we exploded out into the International group, quickly covering 40 feet of dance floor even before the fallaway / telespin. The speed and movement of this pattern caused no small sensation among the onlookers, who scooted off the rest of the floor. We hovered for a moment before the telespin, and then in a series of quick snaps, twisted across the short end of the hall before entering an illegal (for International) double-reverse spin and a contra-check. Regaining the momentum, I switched to American style and we executed a series of open-arm left turns into five quick pivots, a Rudolph exit (causing the lady's leg to pop away into an aerial ronde) followed by a roll-in to a slow drop all the way to the floor. International is good for extended movements, but American style reigns supreme for expression and romance.

I heard the soft patter of some applause, but it was only then that my real plan for dominance came into operation.

The orchestra conductor saw our rapid travel across the floor, and (aided in his cognitive abilities by the $20 bill I proffered to him in advance) he launched into a Viennese Waltz.

A Viennese Waltz played at a public dance will clear the floor almost as fast as Beethoven will clear a mall of teenagers. It was ours - all 3,500 feet of it. We started by executing the proper 18th-century bow to each other, and began a series of long natural turns around the floor.

The slow turns of International style are technically not rotations, but a series of side-to-side movements. The sway of the couples caused by the action yields an illusion of turning - the very feature that defeats most beginning dancers. In our case, we opted for distance and form, and we traced the outer edge of the floor.

And then it happened - the final melding of moving bodies with synchronized steps and weight changes. This was the dissolve into absolute freedom of movement where the laws of gravity are suspended by the magic of music and dance. The feet barely touched the floor as 3/8 measures marched to the energetic Strauss theme.

The action from the crowd was predictable, as they thought this was part of the show, and they clapped enthusiastically.

Now a proper exit was in order, so we darted to the center and into a fast American spin.

Actually, a fleckerel would have been more appropriate here as it is a real International movement. The fleckerel movement is a series of rapid spot turns, where the man and woman dance around each other in the same standing space. It is pleasing to watch when performed correctly, and is one of the only five International steps allowed in Viennese Waltz. In our case, however, such contrived choreography is best left to a previous six-hour grinding practice session, so we opt instead to the easier and freer American style.

Now we reversed direction after a brief underarm turn, and we opened up into a side-to-side chassé before a quick out-twirl of the lady into the final bow.

The thunderous applause that followed was only punctuated by comments like "Oh, Henry, when are you going to take dance lessons"?

Although that display may seem impressive to the observer, it really is a sad commentary on the downfall of American social graces, where a Viennese Waltz is a special performance, instead of a natural experience, as it ought to be.

The attendant newspaper reporter rushed up and wanted to know what organization we represented. I replied by introducing my partner and in a mock shy manner, "I am sorry, but I cannot give my name. I was working for the hotel parking cars outside, saw this lovely lady and the rest was pure inspiration".

Thus we see that treachery and skill will beat money and power any day of the week. But as the evening was almost gone, we carefully behaved ourselves thereafter, although given wide berth by the cognoscenti (including Henry).

Then I left and never saw her again.