All About Student Dances
Colorado Academy’s Upper School dances are right around the corner. We are continuing with a few changes that we made last year; all of these changes have been designed to address both appropriateness and safety at these traditional Upper School events.
Spring Fling
First up, we have our re-designed semi-formal dance, formerly known as Winterfest, now called “Spring Fling.” We shifted WinterFest from its traditional January timeframe to Saturday, March 2 from 8-11 p.m. The dance will be held in new CA West Gym, right here on campus, and will be for students in Grades 10, 11, and 12 only. The theme this year is "City of Stars" (based on the La-La Land movie). Students may arrive anytime up to 9:30. Once a student leaves the dance, he or she may not return later to the dance.
No dates are required for this dance and we encourage anyone to ask anyone to the dance. This is NOT a Sadie Hawkins dance. The dress is semi-formal and transportation does NOT need to be in limos or other rented vehicles. We also discourage the use of ride-sharing as well, as technically Lyft and Uber are not supposed to offer their services to anyone under 18.
The cost is $25 per person. Note that if the ticket cost is prohibitive for students, they should ask a dean or their advisor and receive a free ticket. Ticket sales will be done online and in person in the dining hall at lunch time during the week before the dance.
As noted in our communications last year, there were several reasons behind the changes to this dance. Winterfest has long been a challenging event for Upper School administration and faculty to manage, typically producing a variety of negative social and behavioral issues that impact the Upper School from early in the new calendar year until well after the event is over. Our hope is that by narrowing the age range of the attendees and moving it to a less problematic time of year, we will be able to provide a safer, less costly, and more age-appropriate dance.
Prom
Additionally, Prom will be held later in the school year (May 18, 2019), and will be for Juniors and Seniors only. Three years ago because of a weather problem on the originally scheduled date, we had to move Prom into May, and we found that the event was more successful at that later time. Again, the decision to change the age range and the date are based on what we believe to be a safe and appropriate framework for the event given the age and maturity of students, the increased size of the Upper School, and other events that fall at the same time of year. We will also have access to a wider range of venues, some of which have been too small to use a prom site. The later date promises the possibility of better weather on an evening when many young drivers are on the road either very late at night or very early in the morning. A date closer to the end of the school year will hopefully promote student responsibility for both their behavior and their academic performance. Juniors will still have some final exams and projects to contend with the following week, so we have built in a buffer on Monday, May 20, and spread out exam week in a new way so that will be more manageable. (Details on the Final Exam week will be announced soon.)
After-Prom
With Prom now available only to Juniors and Seniors, we have also eliminated After-Prom. Over the years, attendance at After-Prom has decreased, even when it has been held at different venues or locations. Experience has shown that the older the student, the less likely he or she is to attend After-Prom. Meanwhile, one of our most reliable venues, Dave & Buster’s, is no longer renting out their space for After-Proms, which has forced us to consider more out-of-the-way alternative locations. Finally, it is increasingly difficult to find volunteer parent chaperones for the early-morning hours (usually from 11 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.).
The administration and Parent Association ask parents to support these social event decisions by not hosting private and separate all-night parties; there will be numerous reminders to this effect as the dance dates draw nearer. Studies show that the spring has the highest rate of severe accidents, drunk driving, and other problems amongst teenagers. Our goal is to provide great social events with reduced risk to our students.
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