The "Bleu Electrique" soirée may have started as a proper, well mannered meet-and-greet social Saturday evening. Picture an impeccably dressed throng sashaying down a covered runway, striking a pose for photos, sipping on bubbly and prattling on about the holidays past and future while admiring the art on display at The Menil Collection.
But as is customary with the museum's chic young patrons, The Menil Contemporaries, there's always something unexpected, as unexpected as the oeuvres of French artiste Yves Klein, whose monochromatic blue canvasses gave the fête its thème du jour.
Co-chairs Linsay and Jeremy Radcliffe, Isabel and Danny David and Kelly and Russell Hamman planned for Urban Souls Dance Company to whirl in and about the 600 guests, from a side entrance through a long gallery to the main lobby, to lead the artsy crowd into a spacious tent where lady DJ Kalkutta was prepared to morph this gathering into a feral dance party.
Groovy dance moves that leaped off the ground sent shockwaves from wall to wall, nearly buckling the wooden floor.
While the white leather seating and voluminous lighting cubes hanging from the ceiling endowed the space with a minimalist tenor, the high-decibel tunes magnetized many to get up on their feet and bust a move.
Moreover, when PSY's "Gangnam Style" and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" blasted through the speakers, groovy dance moves that leaped off the ground sent shock waves from wall to wall, nearly buckling the wooden floor.
The busy bar could hardly keep up with the demand for Cinco Vodka's French-inspired beverages. Thankfully little gourmet bites by Jackson and Company refreshed patrons while they watched video footage that nodded to the institution's 25th anniversary.
Sponsors including Momentum Audi, Martha Turner Properties, Salient, Bergner & Johnson, Weingarten Group and Crisp and Raw helped raise more than $115,000.
Partying 'til midnight were Kristy and Chris Bradshaw, Jared Lang, Caroline and Jared LeBlanc, Tod Eason and Romy Mitchell, Katy Mayell, Mark Sullivan, Jenni Rebecca Stephenson, James Glassman, Fabrice Roche, Claire Cormier Thielke and Rick Thielke, Lindsey George and Jim Petersen, Nic Phillips, Aaron Howes, DeeDee Guggenheim, Michele and Robert Luke, Meredith Riddle and countless others.
