Quadrille Ball
BY A.L. GORDON
January 24, 2005
At the 45th Quadrille Ball Saturday night, all eyes were on the young women in white - white satin dresses, white gloves, white shoes, and sparkling tiaras. The men donned white gloves, too, and tails.
In pairs, they swirled around the Plaza Hotel's ballroom, forming rows and squares and windmills. When they finished the event's namesake dance, guests burst into applause.
Our side, Mother Nature seemed to applaud, too, with a shower of snow.
The ball is an annual rite led by women of German descent to foster relations between Germany and America. Proceeds from the event go toward scholarships for American students to study in Germany, and vice versa.
In fact, only six of this year's dancers had German ancestry, though there is a stronger German streak through the older adults attending the ball.
The younger members of the crowd, however, appreciate the founders' principles. "It brings back history, an old tradition," said a member of the Junior Committee, Adam Meyerhoff.
"The dancers are people who want to contribute to society, who are charming, social, well-educated - they are Ivy League and Army brats," a 2005 Quadrille dancer, Karyn Plonsky, who is an actor, said.
What do the dancers learn? "This is about making good decisions, teamwork, discipline," Ms. Plonsky said.
"The people who it suits are suited to it," said a 2005 Quadrille dancer, Courtney Keyser, who is in finance. It is an evening of pomp and circumstance in which both old and young delight.
"I'm sitting here watching all these beautiful women," said a retired Volkswagen executive, Ulrich Fahrun, who has attended the ball with his wife for about 30 years - more than 20 of them flying in from Detroit - as a guest of George Schildge.
"I love the formality of it, and to see the excitement of the young people," Mr. Fahrun said.
The formality began with a receiving line of sorts formed by the Quadrille dancers, who yelped for the Junior Committee members passing by - these were the folks who'd mentored them through 10 weeks of rehearsals.
Things turned more serious with the introductions inside the ballroom. As names were called, couples walked the length of the ballroom (later the dancers would be introduced in similar fashion).
Those announced included the guest of honor, the chief executive of BMW US Holding, Tom Purves; the German Ambassador to the United Nations, Gunter Pleuger, the Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York, Ewe-Karsten Heye, and the Austrian Ambassador to the United Nations, Gerhard Pfanzelter.
The orchestra played the German national anthem and "The Star-Spangled Banner," and then it was time for dinner and dancing, which lasted until 4 a.m. The early evening refreshment consisted of smoked salmon and filet mignon. German chocolates and goulash were served after midnight.
