In last Thursday's NOW email, I suggested that Friday's inaugural ball might call for a pair of glass slippers. I was just kidding  — though it would have been doable, thanks to the heated walkways at Sugarbush. 

More modest footwear didn't put off the "prince", though, who was in a dancing mood. Governor Peter Shumlin, the beau of the ball, pressed me into a swinging pas de deux that suggests Vermont's foxtrotting days may be over. There were no lifts or dips — thank God — but the governor was definitely leading. Not since my ballet days has a guy twirled me around like that.  

Shumlin must have set his agenda the moment he spotted me — we've known each other for years, but have never locked limbs. There was no asking involved; Shumlin simply appeared, relieved me of my drink — which he passed off to my boyfriend, Sen. Tim Ashe — and led me by the hand toward the band. 

Were they playing Little Feat's "Dixie Chicken"? I can't remember. I was too busy trying to keep up with the governor. As a former dance critic, I don't say this often: The dude can dance. Soon enough we'll see if he can cut a budget as artfully as he cuts the rug.