Yesterday was One Elegant Evening, the first and largest funraiser my company puts on for the entire year, and although it went pretty spectacularly, I am still glad that it’s over.

One Elegant Evening is a pretty big deal. The money we get out of it helps pay for things like new costumes and the ability to rent out a theater to perform in. It is held in Californo’s, a restaurant in Westport, and is a pretty swanky deal. Everyone dresses up, drinks some wine and fancy hors d’oeuvres and enjoys some new, original dances put together just for the funraiser.

This year, we sold all of the 130 tickets available (completely disregarding the fire safety regulations, even though that was the reason we only sold 130 tickets. “So long as no one sets the building on fire, we’re fine,” our director joked). We also had a silent auction for various prizes, as well as ways for people to just donate money. I didn’t get a good look at it, because by the time I was done dancing it was after 9 p.m. and I hadn’t eaten yet and I really just wanted to go home, but it definitely looked like we got a lot of donations.

It also seemed like everyone enjoyed the dancing too. Several people cheered, and one of the patrons came up to our director afterwards and told him that it was one of the best shows he’s ever put together. Our director likes to claim that it’s the wine talking, but I also feel that this year’s pieces were really well done and interesting. It was definitely one of the more fun fundraisers that I’ve ever done. Even so, I’m glad it’s done so we can focus on Nutcracker.