THE QUADRILLE BALL

The Quadrille Ball is an evening in New York in early February, given for German-American friendship and paid out in scholarships. Some two dozen students go to university on the proceeds each year.

The dance it is named for is performed by young professionals between twenty-one and thirty-five who have rehearsed for months.

The Interruptions

German charity balls were a fixture of the New York season for most of the nineteenth century, held first at the Academy of Music and then at the Metropolitan Opera House, where the first was given in February 1890. They moved on to the Waldorf, and then to the Astor.

They stopped in 1917, when the two countries went to war.

They resumed in the thirties as the Snow Balls, given for Lenox Hill Hospital, which had been the German Hospital until the name became difficult. Then the second war stopped them again.

In 1960 five people met in a lawyer’s office and decided to start it once more. The first Quadrille Ball was held in January 1961. Its honorary chairman was General Lucius Clay, who had commanded the American occupation of Germany and organised the Berlin airlift. Its guest of honour was Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, grandson of the last Kaiser.

A ball twice stopped by war between two countries, restarted by the American general who had governed one of them and the heir to the throne of the other. There is nothing else like it on this calendar.

The Dance

The quadrille is a square dance for four couples. It came out of the French court into the ballrooms of Europe in the early nineteenth century, and went out of fashion almost everywhere. Vienna still dances one at midnight, and New York dances it here.

The volunteers who dance it are paired as couples. They are not debutantes in the usual sense. There is no presentation and nobody is walked across a floor by a father. The dance is the point rather than the people performing it.

What to Know

The ball publishes no dress code for its guests; the Court wears white tie.

The evening runs to a form: cocktails in the Terrace Room, dinner in the Grand Ballroom, the quadrille, dancing to a live orchestra, and a late supper elsewhere for those still standing.

You need not be German or American. The room runs to diplomats, bankers, and people who studied on the scholarships and came back.

Places are taken by table and by patronage, and the levels are published in advance.

The mistake is arriving for the dinner. The quadrille is the reason the thing exists, and anyone who comes late has missed it.

Questions

When is the Quadrille Ball in 2027?

The 66th annual Quadrille Ball is on Saturday 6 February 2027 in New York; the venue is to be confirmed. The evening comprises a cocktail reception, a three-course dinner, the quadrille performance, dancing and a silent auction.

How do you buy tickets to the Quadrille Ball?

Tickets are sold through the ball’s members’ portal, reached from the Tickets link on quadrilleball.org; sponsorships and journal advertisements are arranged with the Quadrille Chair. The proceeds fund scholarships, administered since 1964 by the Institute of International Education, for German graduate students in the United States.

How do you become a dancer at the Quadrille Ball?

Dancers are young professionals aged 21 to 35, who apply online, naming whoever referred them. No dance experience is needed. Rehearsals are on Tuesday evenings at seven on the Upper East Side, and places on the floor are limited, so regular attendance helps. On the night the dancers wear tails and white dresses.

The Court

The Quadrille Ball is not the Court’s own. Tables, patronage and seating are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of the evening: getting there, where to stay, and the table afterwards.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.