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Time to dig through your closet, drawers, shelves, and under your bed for the classiest attire that you brought to Carleton (aka the one dress/one button-up shirt you packed at the last minute). Tomorrow night the best combination of music, dances, decor and good-looking students come together to enjoy, quite honestly, one of few good things we have to look forward to in this blistering cold bubble that is Carleton’s winter term.
It is time for Carleton’s 31st Annual Mid-Winter Ball.
As you walk through the double-doors that leads you into the Student Center, not only will you notice that more than half of the school’s population has come to enjoy the Ball, but also that your choices are nearly endless. Like the years before, there are three main rooms that you are able to grape-vine your way between. Each room encompasses its unique theme. The Rooseville Big Band, as they have for the last fifteen years or so, will be playing classical ballroom music in the Great Hall. In the Sevy Team Room, the band Salsa del Sol will be accompanying salsa, meringue and other dance styles from 9 pm to midnight and then handing it over to Cooper Buss ‘13 who will be playing rave music. And don’t worry, if Madonna comes a-praying, the typical Sayles dance run by student DJs will accompany you and your shirt-removal. The differences between the rooms give the student population so many options that you’re sure to find some kind of place that quenches your dance thirst. And if you need a break from dancing, there is a photo booth waiting to be used at the ACT center for a small fee.
The Ball begins at 9pm and runs until 1am. Although the dance does not have a theme this year, the decorations will most certainly be top-notch, with a professional decorator coming to Carleton to deck our halls with “a more formal, yet contemporary look than years past,” says Erin Lopez ’13, one of the head directors of the Mid-Winter Ball. “We’re thinking no theme, but go big with the decorations,” she said. Not only will there be decorations galore, but appetizers will be lining the exterior the Great Hall from 9 to 10:30 followed immediately by Dominos pizza until 1:00am.
Student Activities Program Board (SABP), along with the Dance Program Assistants have offered various ways to get Carleton ready to put on its best moves. Last weekend SABP sponsored a bus to go to Mall of America in order to allow some last-minute shopping for the event. Also, there will be a crash course during the day on Saturday on various dances that could be employed throughout the night. Finally, there will be multiple buses running from Goodhue, Watson/Cassat/Myers, interest houses and others to the Complex (a full schedule is online at the Student Activities website). “This is to make sure that everyone gets to and from the dance safely,” says Nadine Sunderland, a key organizer for Mid-Winter Ball. A coat-check will also be available in the ACT office. Although the coat-check is free, if you’re feeling generous, all donations from that night will be going to Face AIDS run by the Global Organization at Carleton. So remember to slip a couple of bucks into your coat pocket before heading into the chill.
The Mid-Winter Ball came to be in 1981 as a themed “Viennese Ball” and thus evolved from the “Anniversary Ball” (1985) to the “Starlight Ball” (1986) and finally to the “Mid Winter Night’s Ball” in 1987. The tradition has held strong with the hard work from various organizations at Carleton. Some of the key planners for the 2011 Mid Winter Ball are Carrie Morris, Lee Clark, Sonali Gupta ’12, Haley Johnson ’13, Cooper Buss ’13, Sunderland and Lopez. Their work has been cut out for them beginning in Fall Term, and has since been quite tiring. However, in the end, “it’ll be worth it” says Lopez, “when everyone has had a really good night, and we get to see what we helped create.”