Ball (dance)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aristocrats gathering around Emperor Franz Joseph at a ball in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, painting by Wilhelm Gause (1900).
A ball is a formal dance. The word 'ball' derives from the Latin 'ballare' meaning 'to dance'; the term also derived into "bailar" which is the Spanish and Portuguese word for dance (verb), also in Catalan it's just the same word, 'ball', for the dance event.
Attendees wear evening attire, which is specified on the invitation as black tie or white tie (the most formal). Social dance forms a large part of the evening; actual ballroom dancing may or may not occur.
[edit] Types of ball
[edit] See also
- Ball culture
- Ball gown
- Ballroom
- The Gaskell Ball
- Cinderella
- Dance card
- Duchess of Richmond's Ball
- Prom, a North American term for school-sponsored balls
- Sadie Hawkins dance
- Spinster, for information on spinsters' balls
- Vienna Opera Ball
