Russian Ball Prom theme?

Question

My Prom comittee decided they liked a Russian Ball as their prom theme. Do you guys like it? What could we do to make it stand out as russian, rather than just any other ball? We also need a title for the evening, rather than just calling it a Russian Ball.

Answer 1

Hi Kelsey! Being Russian, I certainly like the idea of a Russian Ball as prom theme :) but it does sound quite tricky at the same time! I've got a few suggestions, maybe you would find them helpful.

1) The first idea that I had was a RUSSIAN BALLET theme. All the famous ballets by Tchaikovsky are based on fairy tales, so they could give you inspiration for some beautiful decorations - Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty would probably be more appropriate, as The Nutcracker has the Christmas theme. You could use some charming music pieces from the ballets at the beginning of your night. The title could be SWAN PRINCESS for example.

2) Speaking of fairy-tales, you could have a RUSSIAN FAIRY-TALE theme. The only problem is that I don't think any Russian fairy-tales are that well-known. Here are some pictures illustrating one of the stories:
http://www.artrusse.ca/Pushkin/tale_saltan.htm
And here's a nice picture of traditional Russian dress:
http://ruswinter.50megs.com/clothes.html
Of course you can use ANY decorations and music that you associate with Russia if you go for this theme.

3) Another idea is to have a RUSSIAN TSAR COURT theme. That suggests lavish dresses and decorations. Here are some pics of imperial costumes:
http://russianimperial.tripod.com/id1.html
The title could be something like: RUSSIAN IMPERIAL BALL or TSARINA BALL.

4) And one more idea that I can offer is the RUSSIAN WINTER theme. You could call it something like WHITE RUSSIAN BALL or ONCE UPON A TIME IN SIBERIA or MOSCOW WINTER NIGHT. Lots of sparkly stuff for "snow" and "ice" would look pretty. Ice figures of people, animals and castles/gates are very popular in Russia and their models can be made or drawn.
There's a nice pic of Russian traditional winter dress (the website is for learning the language but I liked the picture):
http://www.studyrussian.spb.ru/special.html
A samovar would look really nice and can be used for serving hot (or even cold!) drinks:
http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Visual___Artistic_Resources/Toby_Knobel_Fluek/The_Samovar/the_samovar.html
http://www.samovar.kz/
Not sure if a wintery theme would work in spring/summer but it could definitely be spectacular visually.

Anyway, I've noticed you've been posting ideas about other themes for your prom so if the Russian one doesn't work out I hope you'll come up with something just as nice. Good luck!

Answer 2

You need to hire a team of whirling dervishes.

Answer 3

Black and White.