T’was a cold, rainy night that didn’t prevent the 2023 Dallas Symphony Orchestra League Presentation Ball underwriters from heading to the Ritz-Carlton Dallas on Tuesday, January 24.
In addition to the seated supper in Ballroom Salons C and D and the opportunity to get to know the other supporters, it was the bank of Gittings portraits of the 2023 debutantes in the salon’s lobby reception that was the draw.
While parents, of course, sought out their daughters’ photos, they couldn’t help but check out how each of the 27 debs had a different pose to set themselves apart from the rest.
Dallas Symphony Orchestra mainstay Venise and Larry Stuart also became a center of conversation. It had just been three weeks since Larry had complained of breathing the day before they were to head to a wedding on the East Coast. Instead of attending the wedding, he underwent a triple bypass surgery to celebrate the New Year. As Venise told Presentation Ball Honorary Co-Chair Lisa Cooley and deb mom Jennifer Dix, Larry was amazed how he was breathing now better than years past.
Right on time Ball Chair Karen Cox and her team opened the doors to the adjoining ballroom with eight tables for guests including DSOL President Cynthia Beaird and her husband Brice Beaird, Kathy Crow, Sara Lee and Stan Gardner, Victoria and Michael Steindorf and Mitzi and Rick Michaelson.
BTW, the upcoming black-tie presentation ball at the Meyerson on Saturday, February 11, will the last one produced by Jan Strimple, who will be handing over the reins to Densil Adams, who cofounded Preston Center Dance in 1990. Assisting Densil will be former deb mother Mia Davis, who was Miss New York “many years ago.”