Reflections on the First MHS Dance in Ten Years

After all of the months of planning and hard work that was put into Madison High School’s first semi formal dance in 10 years, the night came and went, and the dance was a success. About 200 tickets were sold to students ranging from freshmen to seniors.

Originally the dance was thought to be only for juniors and seniors, and a Sadie Hawkins theme, where the girls ask boys to be their dates for the dance. In the end, the dance ended up being date optional and was opened up to all grades. Some seniors claimed that they would have gone to the dance had it been for upperclassmen only. They said that the presence of freshmen deterred them from going to the dance. Two seniors, Mackaella Goodwin and Marissa Dias, commented on why they didn’t go to the dance. Marissa said that she didn’t like the fact that it was held in the gym, “it reminded me of a middle school dance”. Mackaella agreed and also explained that “there wasn’t a lot of information given out ahead of time, so there was a lot of confusion about what was happening”.

The theme of the dance was “A Night in the City”. Although members from every grade attended the dance, most of the attendees were sophomores and juniors. Junior Maddison Raven said that the dance was “surprisingly fun and everyone had a great time!”

Prior to the dance, people went to each others houses to take pictures. Even for those with dates, corsages were not worn despite the event being semi-formal. When students first walked into the school they had to show their ticket or say their name to prove that they had paid. Then they made their way to the auxiliary gym which served as a coat-check for the night. The actual dance to place in the main gym that was decorated with lights and balloons. There was tinsel hanging from the entrance and a carpet leading up to it. All of these decorations transformed the gym into a New York themed dance.

A DJ was hired to play music and there was a table full of baked goods set up by the girl’s locker room for students to snack on. Although the dance officially started at 8 o’clock, people didn’t start filtering in until around 8:30. The dance went to 11 o’clock, but junior Cara Smith said that rarely anyone stayed for the entire time and that most people had left the dance by 10:30.