Winter Formal: a starry night

On Feb. 7, Aragon held its annual Winter Formal dance with the theme “A Starry Night” from 7-10 p.m.

This year, the venue was switched from Devil’s Canyon, where it took place the previous year, to the College of San Mateo’s Bayview Dining Room on the second floor. 

“We found [Devil’s Canyon] to be way too big for the number of students that we had,” said Leadership adviser Lindsay Bussey. “Moving it to CSM was an intentional decision based on the declining numbers of those attending formal district wide. The venue could only hold 500, which is how we came to that number.”

The venue provided food, including teriyaki chicken, mac and cheese, caprese skewers, cupcakes, cream puffs, small pizza slices, bowls of candy and a wagon of chips for students to grab anytime. The beverages included fruit-infused water and soda. 

“Overall, [the food] was good,” said freshman Walter Erickson. “I thought the teriyaki chicken was good [and] I really like the mini cream puffs. But I also wouldn’t mind if they had something a little simpler [like the hot dogs from Homecoming].”

Many students enjoyed dancing and games, with some expressing their love for crowd-style dances.

“The energy was great,” Erickson said. “There were a lot of times when everyone agreed that they were [dancing separately], and then [they] all [came] in at the big part of the song. That was a really fun part I liked. The songs were mostly good, but then [around] every three songs, there’d be one that not many people knew, or only knew one part. Maybe they could have consistently used some more famous songs, but I understand that it’s a long set, so you can’t have all the songs be famous.”

While the dancing was the main attraction, students took part in other activities as well. The dance had cornhole, air hockey, a photo booth, chess and many other board and card games. There was also a balcony that provided a night time overwatch of the homes below.

“There were a lot of times where I was tired and I needed a break from dancing,” Erickson said. “It was nice to be able to go play a board game [and] to be able to step outside and get a little bit of fresh air. Those areas were really great [and] awesome.”

The dance was able to reach full capacity with tickets sold out one week prior to the dance.

“We sold out, which is amazing, because many of the other schools in the district are struggling to break even with their numbers,” Bussey said. “We’re grateful that we don’t have that problem.

Aragon’s next dance will be Prom, held on Apr. 18.