Brilliant Lighting in the Ballroom

Chandeliers in the ballroom, Palais Palavicini, Vienna

When you hold a ball, it is best to provide soft, but bright light. Modern people tend to think that ballrooms of the past were dim, romantic places, but remember, balls were meant to be sociable occasions.


Too high an illumination is scarcely possible, for brilliancy is the desideratum. (Edna Witherspoon, The perfect art of modern dancing. London, New York: Butterick Publishing Co., 1894, p.60)