by Claire McGuire

The last two weeks at Capital have been filled with cryptic signs and rumors about what this year’s Winter Formal would entail. The intense controversy that has surrounded Capital High’s new dance policy, face to face with space, has been hitting student council and the popularity of dances hard. After a controversial and unsuccessful Homecoming Dance, Student Council had to come up with a way to reinvent the concept behind the dance. While the previous model involved a mob of grinding teenagers, students did not want to pay and participate in a dance that was going to limit their dancing style. Student Council was presented with an interesting problem; an administration that wasn’t going to change the policy and a student body that wasn’t going to attend dances. Since school dances are the Council’s main source of income, the low attendance rates posed a serious concern.

So the Council set out to use the element of surprise, setting up a dance that would be radically different from previous dances, and therefore completely secret. Rumors flew and the whispers of some Student Council members only helped to fuel the flames of anticipation. Which is why most attendees were pleasantly surprised on Friday night when they showed up to find a creative and fun solution to the usual issues at dances. Cody Howell a senior from Helena high described the dance as “a giant movie style house party.” The entire basement of the school was decked out in themed rooms. Music of different genres filled every “room”, with dedicated areas for techno, rock, hip hop and country. There was a lot of time and effort put into the different rooms’ decoration with hay bails, strobe lights, glow in the dark paint, lava lamps and faux graffiti transforming the basement. All had accompanying decor and two had student DJs as masters of the music. There were also lounge areas set up, complete with couches and lamps. Student Council also provided water and sparkling cider, while keeping the ticket price at a manageable 10 dollars. Chaperons roamed the halls enjoying the new found moves of Capital High students, not worrying as much about inappropriate dancing. One glowing chaperon commented, “I think it is really cool that they made the effort to make it fun for everyone.” The Hip Hop room had a few grinding issues but for the most part the dance was a smashing success. Many dance goers were surprised to realize that the fun was over at the end of the night.

The comments of the students reflected the success of this new kind of dance which sophomore Brenden Casey described as “Ravetastic”, an adjective that best describes the highly active techno room, which was appropriately placed in the semi-creepy area right outside of the student lounge. Senior K.J. Kallin said that the dance “was pretty sick, I though it would be lame but it turned out to be awesome.” It seemed as if the student body thoroughly enjoyed having a choice of what to listen and dance to. Elyse Ramirez said of the new dance set up, “It was Rockin! Everyone had their music.” A freshman Karlissa Skinner enjoyed this dance more simply because “it wasn’t just one big mosh, lots of different genres were represented.” The review from the student body was on the whole very positive even if there were still a few gripes about not being able to grind blatantly at a school event. The Student Council members were proud and worn out by the end of the night having witnessed a huge success. Student Council adviser Mr. Goodwin said that “it was great to see the students out there, I hope that they had fun.” Mr. Linheart, another S.C. advisor, was also happy with the result and how many people the dance drew commenting that, “We had a great turnout, close
to 500 kids. I think that the secrecy added to the suspense and drew a good crowd.”

Many are tipping their hats to the Student Council members who were able to turn very adverse conditions into an opportunity for innovation and success. The dance would have been a hit in a normal year, but after the debacle that was homecoming the stark contrast was all the more impressive. It will be tough, but we can only hope for something equally unique for Prom!