Spring Fling, Dance Commission hope to increase participation

For most of the year, it was looking as if there would be no Sadie Hawkins dance at the end of Spring Fling week, which this year will be held from March 28-April 1.

According to activities director Rebeca Marshburn, to avoid the ticket sales problems that last year’s Sadies had, the administration removed it from the school calendar, upsetting those who were looking forward to an informal second-semester dance.

After an increase in attendance at Homecoming and Winter Formal, however, head dance commissioner Danielle Berkowitz-Sklar and head Spring Fling commissioner junior Eileen Toh began an effort to get it reinstated.

In January, they gathered numbers that showed the costs, profit and number of attendees for every school dance from the past eight years.

“We wanted to collect these numbers so that we could prove that we as commissioners are doing a good job in encouraging student participation,” Berkowitz-Sklar said. “Spring Fling and dance commissions worked a lot this year together, and we wanted to show that we are capable of planning another dance.”

But even though Sadies has traditionally not had as many attendees as other dances, they found that since fall of 2014, there has been a significant increase in student participation in dances.

This year, the number of attendees skyrocketed for Homecoming, and Winter Formal received the most attendees than ever before. Along with a table chart of these numbers, Berkowitz-Sklar also collected at least 150 signatures from students who expressed interest in attending Sadies if it were brought back.

On Feb. 29, the pair met with assistant principals Brian Safine and Brian Thompson and presented a PowerPoint that included the numbers and reasons Sadies should be added back to the school calendar. They also provided Safine and Thompson the several sheets of signatures, with Berkowitz-Sklar emphasizing that it only took her two days to collect the signatures.

Safine and Thompson found the appeal convincing and asked the commissioners questions about chaperones and the location of the dance. The commissioners were asked to find four teacher chaperones and arrange a DJ for the dance, which were finalized on March 9.

The commissioners and administrators decided that by March 18, a week before Sadies, 100 tickets must be sold in order for the commissioners to continue with planning the dance. Since this minimum number of tickets sold was reached last-minute for last year’s Sadies, the commissioners are planning to publicize the dance by spreading the word and creating promos for students to buy tickets in advance to secure the dance’s date. As of March 14, seven tickets had been sold.

To encourage more participation, Marshburn encouraged the Spring Fling commission to come up with a theme for Spring Fling so that students would be more willing to dress up for both spirit days and Sadies.

The theme they chose was “Spring Fling on the Silver Screen,” with each day inspired by popular movies and characters.

“Last year, there was no overall theme and only a group of arbitrary spirit days, so many of the students weren’t as willing or encouraged to participate,” Marshburn said. “With this theme, students can be more excited to dress up.”

According to junior Yuna Kim, one of six Spring Fling commissioners, it will be easier for students to be encouraged to dress up each day since movies are an everyday part of students’ lives.

The individual themes for the weekdays are: Magical Monday, Time Travel Tuesday, Heroes and Villains Wednesday, Throwback to Homecoming Thursday and Formal Friday. “We had to make sure that each day would interest groups of students,” Kim said, adding that students could even reuse Peter Pan and “Star Wars” attire from Homecoming.

To correlate with the week’s theme, the dance’s theme will be Partners in Crime, referring to famous dynamic duos, like Batman and Robin, Mario and Luigi and Mickey and Minnie Mouse in movies.

Though Sadies is well known as being the one dance that girls are supposed to ask boys to, the commissioners are trying to emphasize that Sadies is actually a dance that students can come with their friends to “just have a good time and kick off Spring Fling.”

While commissioners have been planning the week, the rally commission has been preparing for the Spring Fling Rally on March 25, planned to be the longest rally of the year. Aside from a few games, several boys from each class perform their quirky and hilarious Powderpuff cheer routines in support of their classes throughout the rally.

According to head rally commissioner senior Isa Berardo, to encourage more participation, students are going to be judged on overall spirit, and the winner of the class will be able to choose the end-of-the-year rally theme for May 13.

“We will looking to see if classes are standing and always cheering and whoever is the loudest and most enthusiastic class will be determined by the teachers,” Berardo said.

In addition to the boys working on perfecting their moves for their cheers, the girls from each class have been practicing and coached weekly by their class’ football team players for the upcoming Powderpuff games. The games will commence on March 29 during lunch on the field.

During Spring Fling week, commissioners hope students will be able to destress and enjoy a week filled with memorable festivities that help unite the classes together as a whole.

“[Spring Fling] is like the Homecoming of the second semester,” Marshburn said. “It helps blend the classes together and students can go all out and participate in all of the different activities.”