The glorious Temple of Dendur became mere backdrop for a party Thursday night as more than 1,000 men and women turned it into a dance club.

Red, blue, and yellow lights cast their shadows on the ancient stone structure, while a DJ spun a play list straight out of Marquee.

It was a glamorous event – the first dress-up ball hosted by the Apollo Circle, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s group for art-lovers between the ages of 21 and 39 (though some spotted were surely over 40).

The revelry started at 9 and last ed until well after midnight. The crowd was elbow-to-elbow, which was just fine with guests, though hard on the waiters, who passed out chocolate truffles and three flavors of creme brulee – plain, chocolate with saffron, and pistachio.

When asked, guests effused their appreciation for art and their love for the Met – “Whenever my friends visit me in New York, they insist on coming here,” said one guest.

Yet the liquor, the music, and the spectacle of the guests themselves proved distracting. Few are used to seeing one another in couture gowns and Armani tuxedos – many of which looked borrowed from parents’ closets.

That’s all right, though. The Apollo Circle is intended to mold well-connected and up-and-coming New Yorkers into tomorrow’s patrons. Practice makes perfect.

The carefully chosen chairman and chairwomen – Alejandro Santo Domingo, Chandler Bass, Stephanie Field Harris, and Tinsley Mortimer – conducted themselves with aplomb, and brought some Ivy chic to the affair. Ms. Mortimer attended Columbia; the others went to Harvard.

Ms. Mortimer is the best-known social figure of the group, a chairwoman of the forthcoming New York Botanical Garden Winter Wonderland ball (on December 10) as well as last spring’s Young Friends of Save Venice ball. Her husband is Robert “Topper” Mortimer, a descendant of John Jay and the great-grandson of Henry Morgan Tilford, a president of the Standard Oil Company of California.

Ms. Field Harris was a chairwoman of last spring’s National Audubon Society luncheon and has worked on the Young Conservation Society of the World Wildlife Fund. Now she’s turning her attention to art – she’ll be back at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 7 to attend the Acquisitions Fund benefit with her husband and members of his family. And she has just started a graduate program in studio art.

The single girl in the bunch, Ms. Bass, is a first-year associate at Paul, Weiss. She earned her law degree at Yale and is the daughter of Anne and Robert Bass, the Fort Worth billionaire, ranked no. 198 on the Forbes World’s Richest People list.

A friend of Ms. Bass’s, Samuel Caspersen, offered a glowing review of the party: “This is the nicest junior charity event I’ve ever been to, with a great crowd. A tier above.”