Mad Hot Ballet Gala 2016: 38 pictures from inside last night’s event
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The tears spilling from Karen Kain’s dazzling green eyes at last night’s Mad Hot Ballet gala were, thankfully, tears of gratitude and joy.
Around 1,000 guests packed the (nearly) renovated Polson Pier for the annual National Ballet of Canada fundraiser, which usually lives in the Four Seasons Centre and features a post performance dinner on-stage.
But the complicated set for Le Petit Prince couldn’t be torn down and reconstructed in ample time, so that meant moving the event to a new space. What the clubby venue lacked in décor, the guests made up for with DelPozo, Proenza and Gucci galore.
After posing for selfies at a Chloe rose wall, guests could sip Moet and bid on Gap denim embellished with Swarovski crystals in an I-heart-ballet theme. An elegant dinner by North 44 was preceded by a taste of dance, including Svetlana Lunkina’s gorgeous dying swan, and a steamy Bolero (those Heather Ogden lifts!).
A tribute video highlighting key moments from Kain’s 10 years as Artistic Director was followed by a presentation of a spectacular gift. Greta Constantine’s Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong recreated Andy Warhol’s 1980 portrait of Kain in Swarovski stones on the back of a Gap jacket. Like the theme of the party, it was Outta This World.
Photography by George Pimentel
mad hot ballet gala 2016
Karen Kain and Ross Petty
Bernadette Morra is the former editor-in-chief of FASHION magazine. She has been covering the Canadian and international fashion scenes for more than 30 years, first at The Toronto Star, then at FASHION. Over her long career Bernadette has interviewed many fashion world legends including Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Gianni Versace.