Issue date: 4/12/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Patti Gunderson Senior Lilit Ghazaryan, a foreign exchange student from Armenia, helps set up for the Viennese Ball Wednesday night in the Council Fire Room of Davies Center.

Davies Center will be a far cry from the usual scene of students grabbing a quick meal or studying in between classes this weekend.

Elegant ball gowns and tuxedos will replace the typical sweatshirts and jeans. Cultural cuisine will replace the subs, pizza and burgers, and the sound of waltzes and polkas will fill the space.

The 33rd annual Viennese Ball, the largest one outside of Vienna, Austria, will transform the entire Davies Center into Vienna, complete with UW-Eau Claire musical ensembles and regional musicians performing period music, catered gourmet food and desserts and an Austrian marketplace to purchase European goods.

But making all of this happen is no easy task, said Beverly Soll, the Ball's executive director.

"It's a year-long planning process," she said, and several hundred people are involved in the set-up and production, including the performers, Sodexho food service workers, Davies Center employees and volunteers.

Some community members and faculty oversee different areas of set-up, she said, but the majority of workers are students.

This is senior Liz Wilson's, an arts and events major, second year involved with set-up, and she said while the work load is double a normal work week for her, she enjoys it. She said she gets to see all the interesting memorabilia, a lot of which came straight from Vienna.

"It just transforms the building, and it's very exciting," Wilson said.

This planning process began in September, Soll said, but the actual transformation began Monday and is continuing the rest of the week with changing lights, moving pianos, placing flowers and putting up shelving.

Getting the food planned is another task. Gary Prellwitz, director of Eau Claire's Dining Services, said the preliminary work started in January, when they began to plan the meals.

Now, in the final week of preparations, the menus are being finalized, staff is being scheduled, décor is being determined and the registers are being set up, Prellwitz said.

Continued...

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