I don’t know why it happens. The most curious conversations bloom at the Ballet Austin’s Fête. They last for hours. And they linger in one’s memory for years.
Paul and Natalie Bardagjy
Years ago, we cemented our friendships with Steven Tomlinson, Eugene Sepulveda, Rosa Rivera, Juan Miró, Joe and Tana Christie during lavish Fêtes at the Driskill Hotel. I also met the inimitable Stephen Moser at an early Fête.
Andrea and Dean McWilliams
Later, it was Jack and Carla McDonald, John Thornton, Julie Blakeslee, Amy and Kirk Rudy, Andrea and Dean McWilliams, Melanie and Ben Barnes all at the Butler Dance Education Center, the unfinished Austonian and unresolved Seaholm Power Plant.
Ah, what delicious memories of long, funny, literate and scampy chats between varied courses and salutes to Austin’s top dance troupe.
Kirk and Amy Rudy
This year, the Fête and its younger, later-in-the-evening sibling Fêt*ish circled back to the Driskill for a Nutcracker-themed party spread. And I was placed at a table between Amy Rudy and Julie Blakelee. It was like winning the gala lottery.
The smart, playful back-and-forth never paused for a breath. Both gorgeous women are troublemakers of a sort. I like that. I was physically too far away from their dashing husbands to enjoy much of their company, but who’s complaining?
This is why parties were invented.