President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama Danced at the Inaugural Ball

Moments before the first dance at the first inaugural ball, President Obama emerged onstage Tuesday hand in hand with his wife, Michelle, who glittered in a floor-length ivory one-shoulder gown.The latest on the inauguration of Barack Obama and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.“How good-looking is my wife?” Mr. Obama asked the crowd at the Neighborhood Ball. During the Beyoncé rendition of “At Last,” Mr. Obama accidentally stepped on Mrs. Obama’s hem, revealing that the new president might be better on the basketball court than on the dance floor.

So began a marathon of ball-going for the first couple that went on into the early morning hours on Wednesday.The balls capped off a seemingly endless day of photographs, speeches, parades and handshakes for the new president and first lady.Both the Obamas and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill, vowed to attend all 10 official balls, and they began just after 8:30 on a frigid Washington evening. The parties were scattered across the city, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center downtown, the Washington Hilton in Dupont Circle, the National Building Museum, the National Guard Armory and Union Station. The Obamas’ daughters, Malia and Sasha, did not show up at any of the balls, but their mother told ABC News that they would not go back to school until Thursday.

After the Neighborhood Ball, a $25-a-head party that was meant to make the evening accessible to just about anyone, the Obamas walked upstairs at the convention center to the Obama Home States Ball, a party for residents of Illinois and Hawaii.