<y winter, Carls put away their jeans, hang up their flannel and shed their athletic shoes as they don fancier attire for Carleton’s annual MidWinter Ball.
Last Saturday, the 2012 ball offered live swing music in the Great Hall, live Latin dance music in the Sevy Tea Room and pop music in the Sayles Great Space.
In their dresses and button-downs, Carls were dressed to impress, and impress they did.
“When everyone looks dapper, Carleton is actually better-looking than people think,” said Brian Spisiak ’13.
“We pulled out all the stops,” said Diana Crane ’12 of her and her friends.
“I put on sparkle spray!” added roommate Ally Shaw ’12. Both of these seniors saw the dance as an opportunity to “hang out with their friends and look classy.”
Katie Wahl ’12 also went with a sparkle theme, donning glittery flats.
“I felt like Cinderella,” she said.
Wahl enjoyed dancing to live music in the Great Hall, where she attempted “real adult dancing with lots of spins.”
Gentlemen, too, dressed up for the occasion. Eli Danson ’15 wore a pinstriped suit and a blue shirt, complete with a Jerry Garcia purple tie. His friend Joe Bratkowski ’15 also relished the opportunity to pull out the button-down.
“I enjoyed the dress-up aspect,” he said. “It’s fun to look nice.”
The Tea Room, the Great Hall and the Great Space themselves were also dolled up for the occasion.
Leaf Elhai ’13 thought the dim red lighting in the Tea Room added a “certainly darker, cooler mood” to the space, while her friend Andrea Simenstad ’13 preferred the golden taffeta banners that swooped down from the ceiling of the Great Hall.
Dancers of all skill levels attempted swoops and swirls in the live music rooms where the Roseville Big Band and Salsa del Soul performed.
“I didn’t know how to Latin dance or swing dance,” Spisiak said. “But boy, we had a lot of fun.”
Emily Scotto ’15 called the swing dances “phenomenal.”
“The live band made my night,” she said. “I polkaed, I swung – I love getting classy.”
While Scotto and others got classy in the Great Hall and the Tea Room, many Carls felt that the Sayles Great Space dance provided a not-so-classy alternative.
Justin Perkins ’12, who had avoided the Tea Room because he felt intimidated by students who “actually knew how to dance,” soon found himself trapped in between two very passionate couples in the Great Space. Scotto, who also visited the Great Space, was not surprised by the type of dancing in the room.
“How classy can Sayles get?” she laughed.
Indeed, everyone seemed to exude a sense of satisfaction with the ball.
John-Michael McGrath ’12 summed up what appeared to be many Carls’ thoughts of the dance.
“My only regret,” he said, “is that the night didn’t last forever.”