If charity balls are to survive to mid-century, today’s young people must learn ballroom dancing. There’s a reason couples sit through meals they didn’t choose and speeches they hope they never give: the chance to strut and two-step across the dance floor. It’s when Alex Donner or Peter Duchin strikes up the band that the fun starts.

Today’s junior set seems unprepared for this most glamorous of society tasks. They may dress up like adults for their own fund-raising events, but when they hit the dance floor, they are shaking booty to the music of 50 Cent and Usher. It makes an amusing – and dare I say horrifying? – sight.

A few rays of hope shine. The chic Amanda Mallan, an attorney who loves a good party, formally dresses and dances (I last saw her tango at the Frick). I also admire the few dozen twenty-somethings who learn how to dance for the Quadrille Ball.

As the movie “Mad Hot Ballroom” demonstrates, no matter what your age, practicing is the thing. So one of the most encouraging developments in ballroom’s future is Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing. With the lure of music lessons, a live band, and a night under the stars, the summer-long program of outdoor ballroom dancing attracts young and old.

The program is for the entire community, but those on the charity circuit make their appearances. On opening night, the program’s chief patrons, Daisy and Paul Soros, danced to a swing band, surrounded by friends and fellow patrons. On another night, Lincoln Center invited its junior set – known as the Young Patrons Society – to a private cocktail party and a night of mambo.

The junior guests seemed more comfortable mingling than mamboing, although some may have been searching for a mambo partner: The crowd was mostly single.

“I’m a little tentative,” a graduate student, Caroline Robertson, said.

A banker, Alex Fleming, and a marketer, Anna Seibert, hadn’t danced yet but said they might.

“It’s pretty impressive,” Mr. Fleming said.

The most enthusiastic mambo practitioners were Doug Raymond and Ananda Martin, who also attended Midsummer Night Swing last summer.

Ms. Martin observed that the ballroom dancers on Lincoln Center’s plaza were, generally, older. That doesn’t faze her, though.

“I support retirees getting their Latin groove on,” Ms. Martin said.

One guest, who refused to give her name or have her photo taken, said: “I’m picture shy but not mambo shy.”

So there’s hope that when the indoor charity balls return in the fall, more young people will be ballroom dancing. And when they settle down and grow old, they’ll be grateful when they hear the maestro strike up the band.

***

Jaci and Morris Reid held a cocktail party at Asprey last week in advance of the gala they plan at their East Hampton home July 29.

Toni Braxton is set to perform and the event will benefit the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, which supports music education programs in public schools. Guests will include the president of VH1, Christina Norman, and the president of the foundation, Paul Cothran.

Mr. Reid is managing director of the political consulting firm Westin Rinehart and was a staff member in the Clinton administration. Mrs. Reid worked for Governor Ann Richards of Texas. In 2004, the couple became the first African-American chairmen of the Washington Ballet’s annual gala.