Leadership plans on hosting a winter formal dance on February 7 at the Mill Valley Community Center. The dance will replace the unsuccessful spring dance that Leadership has attempted to organize in past years, and is already expected to be much more popular with students.
“I’m very excited about having a winter formal because a lot of people seem to want to go,” said sophomore and Leadership student Hayley Van Allen. “We did a survey of tutorial classes and we had a lot of interested students, both upper and underclassmen.”
A group of sophomores in Leadership, headed by Van Allen, came up with the idea of a winter formal and hope that the differences between the winter formal and former Spring Dance will make it more appealing to students.
According to Van Allen, the winter formal “will be different because we will have it at a different location, [and] you can bring a guest from another school … it will be formal dress, but not as formal as prom.”
Fortunately for Leadership, the cost of putting on the dance will be paid for by the revenue earned from the entrance fee. “The dance itself [hopefully] generates enough money to pay for itself,” senior and ASB President Tyler Barbee said.
The past few years, prom and homecoming have been the only school dances that have had high attendance rates, but last year, and the year before, students’ experience of the homecoming dance was marred by bad behavior.
Senior Anna Maria Gassen said that she has had negative experiences at homecoming dances as a result of these issues. “I’ve been to homecoming before, and it honestly just wasn’t that fun,” Gassen said. “I remember one time they turned the lights on because of bad behavior and everyone left.”
Members of Leadership have a more positive perspective on how the Winter Formal will go. “It will be formal, hopefully decreasing any controversy,” Barbee said.
Van Allen hoped that the “winter wonderland” behind the dance will attract more attendees and create a positive experience for those who attend. “I thought it would be fun to have an additional dance that people were actually excited about,” Van Allen said. “We hope to make this dance a literal winter wonderland.”
Favorable expectations for the dance aren’t limited to the Leadership Committee. Sophomore Olivia Phillips is looking forward to experiencing the new take on the winter formal dance. “I am interested to see how it goes,” Phillips said. “I’m just as excited for the formal [dance] as I am for the casual ones.”