The phrase "a fancy ball" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe an elegant or formal dance event, often associated with elaborate attire and decorations.
Example: "The invitation to the charity gala specified that it would be a fancy ball, encouraging guests to wear their finest evening wear."
Alternatives: "a formal dance" or "an elegant soirée".
LONDON — In Guy de Maupassant's 1884 story, "The Necklace," a poor woman married to a lowly clerk borrows an elaborate diamond necklace for a fancy ball.
"She was dressed in a fancy ball gown," he added, "like she was coming from a wedding," which turned out to be the case.
After reading E. L. Doctorow's "Ragtime," I dreamed of throwing a fancy ball where, as in Milos Forman's movie, Norman Mailer would arrive dressed as Stanford White.
He slips one arm behind his back and the other across his waist and leans forward stiffly, as if greeting his dancing partner at a fancy ball in, say, the 1880s.
I dutifully presented my outfit with a curtsy, and sang: "I took my girl to a fancy ball,/ It was a social flop... " They slammed the door in my face.
Illness and injury forced the cancellation of the originally scheduled "Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée.' " Instead, there was "La Valse" to Ravel, in which Balanchine depicts a fancy ball.
I had planned to bring you an account of my life on the inaugural D-list, but that was before I scored a ticket to an actual fancy ball: the Obama Home States bash, honoring Illinois and Hawaii.
Janie Taylor played the doomed heroine in "La Valse," Balanchine's fantasy to Ravel about a macabre fancy ball.
Taking a rather more old-fashioned approach is the "tactical maloderant ball"—a fancy name for what is really just a small, spherical stink bomb made by Paraklese Technologies, a firm based in Indiana that supplies law-enforcement agencies.
(Brantley) 'Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella' This ultimate and most enduring of makeover stories, via the team who gave us "Oklahoma!," has been restyled by the director Mark Brokaw and the writer Douglas Carter Beane into a glittery patchwork of snark and sincerity, with a whole lot of fancy ball gowns.
Could the plaintive sound of the bandoneones transform a simple milonga into the fancy ball at Temperley?
