Have you ever seen a group slow dance with four people, standing in a square, in outrageous glittery outfits, and very much resembling a cult? Or how about a fabulous guy fully in drag, with makeup, a dress, and the whole deal waltz into a dance? These are all experiences that you can only get at your local high school dance.
Despite these memorable moments, the high school dance is one of the traditions that seems rather lackluster, at least in terms of attendance and memorability, at TGS. Attendance is generally low, and the people who do always attend are the same. Perhaps students believe that they have better things to do than to attend an event where they are put in close quarters with their peers and subjected to drama and attention. Or, perhaps, students have not yet discovered the many wonders of school dances.
Recently, the Winter Formal Dance at the Tucson Country Club fit the average mold of a high school dance. The music was good, but it started out quietly. Eventually, more and more people joined in on the dance floor. It was nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either.
Why do students not care about school dances? How can they be more interesting? Why should going to school dances even matter? There is no one correct answer to these questions, but we can offer our advice and opinions on the issue.
To understand the effect of school dances, it is valuable to look at the main problems with these events. There are still some technical issues that arise at school dances. The first is that they generally tend to be expensive. Obviously it costs money to put up a dance, so ticket sales are supposed to counteract that, but spending $40 or more on tickets, nice clothes, and other such goods are not cheap. You could probably have an experience of similar or greater enjoyment with your friends, for much less money.
The second thing against school dances is the time that they take up. I know many you are busy people, so taking a few hours to go to a dance and then getting food afterwards may not seem like the best use of time. You most likely have other interests or passions that you would rather spend their time cultivating.
The third argument against dances is that they tend to harbor often inevitable drama. If you are looking for a calm and easy way to hang out with your friends, a school dance is probably not your best bet. You are almost guaranteed to run into some kind of social dilemma or agitation.
Finally, some dances are not directly planned by the students attending and do not meet everyone’s tastes. The Family association does plan certain dances like for example the 2020 winter formal and the juniors plan the prom for the seniors. Resulting, the initial magic surrounding the dance can fades away quickly. Sometimes the music is bad, or not to everyone’s tastes, which creates an atmosphere counterproductive to the very point of the dance, namely dancing. Sometimes there just are not enough people to make the dance a fun time, or maybe the right people are not there.
In reality the term “school dance” is a bit of a misnomer since the event often does not involve much dancing. It is mostly people standing around until that one courageous person breaches the dance floor, and everyone else feels like they can join in too.
All this being said, there may be some reasons why going to dances is a valid choice. They are inherently meant to be a playful, jovial, and exciting time. They are something to make life interesting. Dressing up and hanging out with your friends in a social environment where you are around a diverse group of people is fun. It is a time where you get to see your friends who you might not always get to see outside of school and enjoy their company.
While dancing may not be the main attraction, it is a good activity. Importantly, the physical act of dancing benefits your body and mind: it creates feel-good endorphins, reduces levels of the stress, and increases your metabolism during activity. Dancing has also scientifically proven to help with social bonding and self-fulfillment.
If you are still not convinced and would prefer relaxing on the sofa, consider this. So much of high school and our time as an adolescent could be forgotten or become an incomprehensible blur, but dances are less likely to fade away into the recesses of memory. Staying at home sitting on the sofa is probably more relaxing, but you are not going to remember doing that. You are, most likely, going to remember going to a school dance, whether that is for the good memories or the catastrophe that happened.
For instance, even to this day, Ms. Clashman vividly remembers her senior dance from high school, because “the music the previous years was rock n’ roll, which is not really great dance music, until [her] senior year when [she] got Devo and B-52,” which made for some really fun dancing memories.
In a more recent occurrence, Karina Schmit, a current senior, remembers that at prom last year, four people, herself included, rocked back and forth in an “awkward square of people” slow dancing. It was not the best experience, but it was certainly very memorable. She remembers thinking, “I’m staring into the soul of a scary Russian,” but that “it was very majestic.”
If these once in a lifetime experiences are not enough to attract you, attending school dances can be an effort to support the people who organized it and the school itself. A lot of planning time, effort, and money goes into making the school dances. Especially when dances are planned by our own STUCO members, it is a basic sign of goodwill to attend.
Because people put in a lot of hard work into the dances, it is nice to support them by showing up. They are often student-created events for students, which is something really special that you definitely do not get very often outside of school.
Even if you do not enjoy the experience, go to the dance so that you can have a say in the future and improve the next dance. You can really make your dance whatever you want it to be. It is your chance to create one of the most memorable moments of your high school experience.
Written by both Sheela G and Juliet Herrick