The Idea Behind the Ball and Our Goal
We were looking to throw an event that could set itself apart from your average club night. It's one thing to dress up the interior of a club and change its appearance for one night, but it's a much more arduous undertaking to convince the patrons to dress up in formal attire for a special evening.
Our goal for the Saint Valentine Masquerade Ball is too combine the historical masquerade ball with the essence of Valentine's Day. This isn't the typical embodiment of the holiday... it isn't about cupid with arrows and loved ones.. It's about the love and mystique of the underground scene. The masquerade brings the 'mystery' to life in a freakish pantomime of the unknown and unfamiliar.
Can you remember the first time you set foot in a gothic club? Do you remember the sense of mystery and the tingle of energy that tantalized your spine? Everyone dressed in black and exotic clothing? The feel of the bass as it sent shivers through your body and sent your heart trembling in rhythmic passion to the phantom beats?
We hope, for a single night, to revive our naivety and love for our favorite genre and the mystery which enveloped us from the beginning....
..so, if you come to the Saint Valentine Masquerade Ball, please dress to impress and hide your identity in any way possibly in order to capture the true essesnce of the event.
What is a Masquerade
The Masquerade Ball has its origins in the elaborate, allegorical pageants and processions that celebrated the marriages and other dynastic events of late-Medieval court life. Beginning in the Ducal Court of Burgundy in the 14th century, Masquerade balls were expanded into costumed public festivities in Italy during the 15th century Renaissance. They were generally elaborate dances held for members of the Upper Classes, and were particularly popular in Venice.
Masquerade Balls became popular throughout mainland Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. John James Heidegger, a Swiss Count, is credited with having introduced the Venetian fashion of a semi-public Masquerade ball to London in the early 18th century, with the first being held at Haymarket Opera House. Throughout the century the dances grew in popularity, both in England and Colonial America.
In modern times, Masquerade has focused less around the formal dancing, and more on the carnival atmosphere. The "costume parties" held in the 20th century descend from this tradition, particularly the cabaret scene of 1890s Paris, epitomized by Moulin Rogue and in the artwork of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the Burlesque movement, a manifestation of the hedonism of Weimar Berlin in the 1920s. This rebirth of decadence and glamour was attributed to the tradition of the Masquerade.
In recent years the worlds of Cabaret and Burlesque have been explored on the catwalks, high streets, stages and screens of the world. The spirit of the Masquerade, and its promise of escapism, decadence and romance, is truly timeless.
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