Aragon’s annual Winter Formal dance, held on Feb. 7 at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, presented itself as an opportunity for Leadership to challenge the notion of formal being a Sadie Hawkins dance with low attendance.
Formal has historically been less attended than other dances at the school, leaving Leadership with room to expand. Senior and Dance Commissioner Gilliana Lau speculates on the low attendance, saying, “I’ve heard different ideas. It could be because prom is coming up and people don’t want to spend extra money on two dances, or it could be because it’s an unofficial Sadie Hawkins dance, so girls aren’t asking as many guys as compared to the other way around at homecoming, and we’d really like to get away from that misconception.”
Leadership teacher Melissa Perino comments on the misunderstanding surrounding the dance, saying, “We definitely want to get rid of that belief [that formal is a Sadie Hawkins dance], because really anyone can go with anyone, whether it’s with your friends or with a date. We just want to throw a great event for the entire student body.”
Perino also hoped that new activities would attract more attendees. “We offered a lot more activities for students this year, just in case dancing wasn’t for them. One of the activities we had were flipbooks. Instead of having a normal photo booth, which we’ve had before, this vendor allows for you to create a seven-second video which takes still shots of the video, then prints and cuts the pictures and binds them into a flipbook. We also offered snacks and beverages at this dance.”
Senior Sienna Williams decided to take a different approach to formal by dressing in more casual attire. “We dressed in [Hawaiian-themed clothes] just for fun. I’ve been to almost every dance all four years and [wanted] to switch it up. We got a small group of people to do it and I think it turned out great. It was a good dance, and I think dressing up like that definitely made it more memorable.”
Perino discusses upperclassmen attendance, saying, “Seniors have limited events and time here left at Aragon, and the things you remember when you graduate are definitely the social activities that you enjoyed with other people, so we’d love to get a big number of seniors attending. The price point is the same as homecoming, so there’s really no reason why this wouldn’t be a highly attended event.”
However, though formal might experience lower attendance than homecoming, Aragon still does pretty well compared to other schools in the district and nation. Perino says, “Dances in schools, nationally, are becoming less and less attended, supposedly due to social media as a cause. Luckily, Aragon isn’t having that problem, as our dances are attended more so than any other high school in the district.”
Lau reflects, “Formal felt like a success, and now we can focus on using the feedback to help better prom.”
