It was a hard day's night for America's new President and his wife, who capped their inauguration day with whirlwind visits to no fewer than ten balls.

From Stevie Wonder to will.i.am, America's rock, rap and hip-hop royalty turned out to provide the soundtrack to the start of Barack Obama's presidency, and he and his wife Michelle took to the floor at each party to lead the celebrations.

The thousands who had paid $75 and upwards for the chance to drink $9 cocktails out of plastic cups and to eat vegetable dip beamed approvingly as they watched Mr Obama, wearing tuxedo and white tie, step onto the dance floor with his wife, clad in a one-shouldered, floor-length dress with a mini-train, in shimmering white.

“First of all, how good looking is my wife?” Mr Obama asked at the first event, called the Neighbourhood Ball "because we are neighbourhood people" and to honour the grass roots campaigns which helped him to victory.

Many of the dance numbers carried a message appropriate to the night. Their first dance - a dignified two-step during which Mrs Obama had to twitch her dress out from under her husband's feet a couple of times - was to Beyonce singing the Etta James classic At Last. The diva finished the song in tears.

Then Mr Obama danced with ecstatic supporters in the crowd as Stevie Wonder, with backing from Shakira, Mary J. Blige, Faith Hill and Mariah Carey, upped the tempo with a version of his “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”. The song was a regular fixture of Mr Obama’s campaign rallies.

"She's a gorgeous first lady," gushed Kiana Moore, 24, from New Jersey. She had bought her eye-catching orange, purple and yellow dress in a shopping spree that day to console herself for failing to get to the National Mall for the inauguration ceremony. She and her friends had had to phone their mothers in California and Hawaii to listen to Mr Obama's swearing-in.

Without pause, the Obamas moved on to the strains of Jon Bon Jovi at the Commander in Chief Ball to honour America's armed forces. The first couple split up to dance with Marine Sergeant Elidio Guillen of Madera, California, who proved to be shorter than the statuesque Mrs Obama, and Army Sergeant Margaret H. Herrera of San Antonio, Texas, who was so overcome that she cried in the president’s arms.

"Almost as soon as we got going then the music seemed to be over," sighed Sergeant Herrera, who had been practising the box step.

Mr Obama and Joe Biden, his Vice President, shared some banter via satellite link with six US servicemen and women in Kabul. All were from the president's hometown of Chicago, but he feigned disgust to learn that they supported the Cubs baseball team instead of his favourite White Sox.

But with 300 wounded troops among the guests, the reality that the country remains at war hung over the party, as they did at the Heroes Red White & Blue Ball.

“As we gather here in Washington, we are sobered. We are fighting two wars, we are facing dangerous threats,” Mr Obama told troops. “Tonight, we celebrate. Tomorrow, the work begins. ... Together, I am confident we will write the next great chapter in America’s story.”

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