With Winter Formal just around the corner, it’s evident that school dances have been losing their energy. From the food options to the dance floor, spirit seems to be slowly fading, replaced with a lack of interest instead. Some students feel inclined to find their own fun, while others prefer to be in the corner, standing off to the side, or just talking. This is to say there is no problem with that, but it discourages people from wanting to go and decreases the energy of it all.
At dances, it is quite noticeable that many just take photos and maybe dance to one song. Either way, if the venue doesn’t have anything really interesting, then what is the point of even going? Sharissa Obando (11) said of her time at the dances, “I feel like if you’re paying money to go to a school dance, you should go there to have the most fun that you can with your friends or meet new people.” She is absolutely correct. If we are paying this amount of money just to stand and do nothing, then what is the point of going? It cannot be the venue’s fault that it is boring; maybe it is the energy that we as students possess. It can be difficult for us to go out of our comfort zones and talk to people, but as teenagers, we have this time in high school to try and explore things.
Not only do our school dances lack this energy, but also other school events, almost as if they have died. There is not much spirit during the rallies, and many spend their time on their phones instead of watching what is going on during the event. Our duty as students should be to uplift the spirit of our school.
To look into the behind-the-scenes of our school events, we asked Activities Director Alexandra Dove about her and Leadership’s point of view. “We always try to have some alternate activity as part of our dance, because not everybody wants to dance all the time,” she explains. Dove adds that they try to take into consideration that students may not feel comfortable dancing or expressing themselves freely, especially in front of their peers. She also notes that this impacts our spirit as a school, as students aren’t willing to go outside their comfort zone.
For Christian Yan (9), it seems he isn’t as interested in the actual dancing as he is in the festivities. Yan shared how his night at the recent Homecoming went, saying, “We didn’t do a lot of dancing. We didn’t really stay on the actual dance floor; we just hung around.” Yan explained that he and his friends found fun even away from the dance floor, almost preferring to stay off of it. Despite keeping a distance from the main area, he found the dance rather fun because of the atmosphere his friends and he created. Alongside Obando, Yan emphasizes that friends are a key aspect, making or breaking the dance itself.
“I feel like if my friends weren’t there with me, [the dance] would have been a lot more boring as a whole,” Obando recalls.
Overall, school dances can tend to be dull, with not much excitement circulating among students. However, we, as a student body, should help bring back that spirit by interacting and enjoying these events. After all, you only have four years in high school, so why waste them wanting to look like how others expect you to? Rather, we should just enjoy this time. To quote Dove, she says, “I think the challenge is, how can we make a space that more students feel comfortable and engaged with so we’re not going back, we’re going forward.”
She is right: for us to be taking a step forward, it is not only the environment that might need to change, but students’ attitudes to these events as well.
