But there is no music to be heard as the couple dances, because in reality “the dancers” are actually a  Frank Gehry creation officially known as the Nationale-Nederlanden building. 

The building has been dubbed “Fred and Ginger” by appreciative critics because of its resemblance to the famous dancing pair of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Like-minded Czechs tend to call it tancinsky d?m, or, The Dancing Building, while less appreciative viewers have names for it like: “terrible“ and “looks like a crushed can of Coke“ to name but a few.

In 1992, Gehry teamed up with Yugoslav-born Czech architect Vlado Milunic to create the seven-story office building for the Dutch National Bank. Since its completion, people throughout the worlds of art and architecture have been staging a long-running argument over its apparent merits and faults.

In a 2005 interview with Radio Praha, Milunic discussed how the project was born: "In 1990 I got the original idea and I was contacted by my friend Paul Koch, who was a representative of the Dutch company National-Nederlanden. And, he liked my project but we decided that we would not be able to receive all the necessary approvals. We decided to associate with another architect, someone known with 'authority', who would help approve this project.

And, in '92 with Paul Koch we visited Frank Gehry in Geneva. When he saw my first sketches Frank accepted the idea of having two different parts." 

Milunic continued: I wanted the building to reflect the situation of the Czechoslovak society during the Velvet Revolution. Two parts. Like a society that forgot its totalitarian past - a static part - and a society that forgot its totalitarian past but was moving into a world full of changes. 

That was the main idea. Two different parts in dialogue, in tension, like plus and minus, like Yang and Yin, like man and woman.

The remnants of the destroyed building were cleared away in 1960, leaving a gaping hole next the neighboring house which was co-owned by Czech ex-president Vaclav Havel, who lived there from his childhood until the mid-1990s. 

From this literal and figurative depression, the Dancing House would someday spring, and its creators were determined to honour its historical foundation.

Construction began in 1994 and was quickly finished in two years time, despite the fact that the building is made from 99 concrete panels each of different shape and dimension, which meant that each panel required a unique wooden form in order to ensure proper construction.

When the construction was completed, ING had its icon, but not necessarily the one they were looking for Gehry to create.

Some critics, like Simonetta Carbonaro, have called the building a 'Dancing Palace,' 'a new jewel of the city's architecture [...] that is adding a new aspect to its history.'

Josef Singldinger's comments are similarly positive: he said that “Fred and Ginger” marks a clear contrast to the rather boring recent architecture found elsewhere in Prague. 

He classifies Gehry's construction as an example of 'catastrophe design,' which is similar to deconstruction design in that the creations of both are usually borne from the ashes of destruction: in this case, from the errant American bomb.