Neha Mukherjee ’18: The Sadie Hawkins dance was canceled for the first time this year. Matt DePillis’ 16, President of Student Council, explains, “The complaints from the students have been heard through the attendance at Sadie Hawkins. It’s very simple: students will show whether or not they want to attend an event by going to it or not. We figured since attendance and enthusiasm for the dance were low that there were not many kids who cared about it, and that was justification enough for us to cancel this year’s Sadie’s.”
What does this leave for the rest of the school dances at Episcopal? Other schools around the area, both private and public, still seem to hold school dances and have significant percentages of their student body attend. Zoe Pasternack ’18 commented, “I think that people will go to school dances if they have reputations of being fun. For example, I know Malvern homecoming is still popular and a lot of people go. As long as it has a good reputation, students will continue to go.”
“At Episcopal, Sadie Hawkins has never been heard to be a dance that everyone goes to,” she continued. “If there is not an interest in going, then eventually it will die out.”
Daisy Learnard ’18 added, “I think that it has something to do with the fact that upperclassmen don’t go to dances. If upperclassmen went to dances, it would rally the rest of the school to go. At places like Malvern and Haverford everyone goes to the dances. Here, there is a stigma that these dances are just for freshman, and so no one else goes.”
Not only do the students recognize this change in attitude, but teachers also. Form Deans, who have significant involvement in planning, advertising, and chaperoning school dances also expressed concerns about dances at Episcopal. Holly Johnston, Class of 2018 Form Dean commented, “It just doesn’t seem like something that tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders are interested in anymore. Kids usually don’t attend dances, or those who do stay only for about twenty minutes. For example, when discussing this year’s Can Dance, out of 125 sophomores we only had about 20 kids attend, including Vestry.”
Johnston gave a potential cause of this. “Kids go to more concerts these days so they are getting their musical outlet. Between these and sweet sixteens, part of the function of school dances is already being served to them,” she said.
On the other hand, Cheryl McLauchlan, Student Council Advisor, explained that, “the age of the school dance” is actually over in all schools, due to the popular demand for other activities. Revealing parts of Student Council’s new initiatives, she explained, “We are trying to find other activities. Our challenge is to find what activities will bring people back to school, which is why students are talking about things like a hypnotist, but it is hard because everyone has a variety of interests. I think that we need to evaluate the changing population and see what the kids want.”
School dances were created to serve a purpose and as Alex McLaughlin ‘17, student council member puts it, “Having a dance is important for the school community because it acts as a fun and different way to bring the community together all at once, instead of things like sporting events. Dances are also great ways to raise some money for each class to fund even more class events.” Similarly, McLauchlan echoed, “Shared memories are what make people feel like a community. Without shared memories you are just an individual that went to school and I think that that is what makes Episcopal different.”