Newport Part 1: Great Gatsby Ball at Rosecliff

My favorite thing about Newport Dace Week is the reason I have so many pictures of a group of elegantly dressed young ladies in obvious, undignified laughter: new friends!  (Hooray, TNG! Star Trek joke...) It really was a blast, and I am happy to spend my recovery week sorting through pictures and sharing with you!  I've picked a few that I think are my absolute favorites, but I have nearly 5,000 photos.  If you'd like to see more, and hear some other accounts of the events, you should absolutely check out Quinn's and Antonia's blogs as well.

I have to admit, I had mixed feelings about the Gatsby ball.  If you missed my Fitzgerald posts, then my quick recap is that I am absolutely in love with the speakeasy adventures of his short stories.  I also happen to adore the Charleston.  The clothes, on the other hand...

I spent a ridiculous amount of time sewing sequins to ribbon to make my own sparkly fringe, and when I was done I felt like I was wearing a very shiny bag.  I have a lot of shape, and that doesn't work for '20s.  But the magic of the beautiful surroundings and the live band combined with friends willing to be totally silly and ridiculous led to a night of flying feet and some on-the-fly Charleston choreography that came out rather well.  It was a fabulous event to kick off the week, and once I was moving I was even happy about my dress!

Thanks to our massive photo pool, I have some excellent "action shots" of the fringe to share.  You can check out more pictures from the week courtesy of many participant photographers on CVD's new Newport Flikr page and read about the history of 19th century balls at Barbara's (co-director of the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers) blog!

the ball in progress in the Rosecliff ballroom

 

doing the "flying charleston" (far right with flying fringe!)

copying a classic 20s picture

line of dancing girls!

Trotting through a Foxtrot with Nick, another CVD dancer

Camping up my refreshments dutie

lounging on the stairs in my best 'vamp' pose

We also had a lot of fun being ridiculously silly in the garden during intermission, but that will have its own post later on.  This was a definitely an event made better by fabulous friends!  I am now doubly excited for our upcoming events.