Cover From left: Polina Teleshova and Pavel Zvychaynyy performing at Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2, 2025 (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
From left: Polina Teleshova and Pavel Zvychaynyy performing at Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2, 2025 (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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World champion Latin and ballroom dancers came to Vienna Ball Hong Kong for a night to remember.
The ballroom of the Grand Hyatt dims, and as the pulse of mambo music fills the air, the red lights rise to reveal two dancers stepping onto the centre of the hall with a commanding entrance. The woman, in a glittering white dress with sweeping drapes, shimmies her shoulders like a parrot unfurling its feathers. A moment later, the man, draped in a flowing red layer over a form-fitting black suit, takes her hands and spins her like a matador brandishing a cape. As the pair launch into an electrifying Samba, the hall erupts with cheers and applause.
Polina Teleshova and Pavel Zvychaynyy—seasoned competitors in the world’s most prestigious professional Latin dance competitions—were among the evening’s stellar performers at the Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2. Presented annually by Studio 9 since 2022, the gala also showcased international champions including Dusan Dragovic and Valeria Agikyan, winners of the 2024 WDC World Championship Professional Ballroom competition, and Stas Portanenko and Nataliya Kolida, the reigning European Champions for Professional Ballroom.
Above Polina Teleshova and Pavel Zvychaynyy performing at Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2, 2025 (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
Polina Teleshova and Pavel Zvychaynyy performing at Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2, 2025 (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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The inspiration for the ball, said the emcee, comes from Anna Pao-Sohmen, founder and patron of the occasion and former chairman of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts: “She glamorously bridges Austrian culture with Hong Kong culture at the Vienna Ball each year.”
Pao-Sohmen, daughter of the late shipping magnate YK Pao and wife of Austrian lawyer and businessman Helmut Sohmen, has long been devoted to education and the arts. She chairs the World Wide Education Group, helped establish the Chinese International School, and serves in honorary positions at Ningbo University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tongji University.
Although not directly affiliated with the professional dance industry, her passion for the art is evident. Trained in ballet from childhood and crowned champion of the US Open ballroom dance competition in 2004, Pao-Sohmen herself returned to the floor this year with a spirited opening Paso Doble alongside Studio 9’s general manager Ivaylo Tonchev.
While the Hong Kong event is a contemporary take on tradition—distinct from the formal Vienna Opera Ball in Austria, which dates back to 18th‑century aristocratic gatherings—it retains the glamour and ambition of celebrating dance as cultural heritage.
Above Professional and amateurs who performed at Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2, 2025 (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
Professional and amateurs who performed at Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2, 2025 (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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The evening unfolded with a four-course dinner punctuated by dazzling professional and pro-am performances. Guests drawn from across industries and backgrounds shared their passion for dance, among them Tatler community members Rossana Gaw, Peter and Elly Lam, cultural patrons Catherine Kwai and Helena Koo of Goldman Sachs, as well as Gillian Choa, former director of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and filmmaker Mabel Cheung. The event also welcomed a host of competitive dancers from across the globe.
“The Vienna Ball has become one of Hong Kong’s most elegant and culturally significant events, where international diplomacy, high society and the performing arts come together in a night of glamour and celebration,” said a Studio 9 spokesperson. In her own short address, Pao-Sohmen wished for the city to continue to flourish and for more dance events to bring joy to wider audiences.
Above From left: Ivaylo Tonchev and Anna Pao-Sohmen performing a Paso Doble dance at Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2, 2025 (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
From left: Ivaylo Tonchev and Anna Pao-Sohmen performing a Paso Doble dance at Vienna Ball Hong Kong on September 2, 2025 (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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Closing the evening, Tonchev announced the launch of the Hong Kong Dance Festival on December 12, 2026—an international competition offering championships, scholarships and the opportunity for winners to perform at the Vienna Ball.
With such bold steps ahead, Hong Kong’s cultural heartbeat promises to quicken even further—proof that here, life is best lived in rhythm.
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
