Timpview’s culture around dances is… interesting. Nightmarishly cringy posters and elaborate matching clothing aren’t unique to Timpview, but we certainly take it to another level. It seems like, with our dances so close together, we’re trapped in a perpetual state of pre-dance fervor. And while most students act like they’re too good for dances, how do people actually feel?

Timpview has more dances than most schools. Across the United States, almost every high school has Homecoming, Winter Formal, Prom, and maybe Sadie’s if they’re lucky. Instead of the standard three or four, Timpview has a whopping six dances (including the ugly sweater formal). Students have mixed feelings about this. In an online poll, 67% of students said that they’re over school dances. Junior Cooper Moyer said “They all feel very sub-par and I haven’t enjoyed them. I feel like if we had two or three they would be better and more fun.” A sentiment we heard echoed from many students was that too many dances make each one less meaningful. According to Moyer, “I’ve already experienced, like, everything I need to in dances.” Perhaps focusing effort and money on fewer dances would improve their overall quality, but there’s still the 33% who say they still enjoy them.  “It’s pretty chill,” senior Van Rasmussen offered. “I feel like it’s not too many but I’m not wanting more.” This attitude was, of course, most common among people who regularly went to dances. Cassidy Baker, the teacher in charge of organizing dances, said about this, “[All the dances] are more to offer people options than anything else… we don’t expect every student to come to every dance.” Despite the poll from earlier, the school has been having problems with too many people at dances. Baker noted “[Choosing a venue] is probably one of the hardest things we have to do, because we’re outgrowing a lot of venues… we’ll be near seven, eight hundred, which a lot of venues don’t support.”

With this many dances, they’re smushed very close together. Baker said that they try to have one “about every other month. There are some schools that do one every month!” This leads to some pretty extreme situations. This was especially noticeable before Sadie’s this year with many students asking while at homecoming. An anonymous junior said “In my opinion, a month is so, so early… I feel like we should normalize two to three weeks before except for maybe prom.” This seems to be more out of peer pressure than anything else. “All of my friends told me to, I told them it was too early but ultimately I was overruled.”

So despite what people may say they think, dances are still going strong at this school. Even with only 35-40% participation, there are still more than enough students going to them. Like Mrs. Baker said, you don’t have to go to every single dance. You might think they’re cheesy and lame, but school dances are by their very nature. The next dance is Western Sweethearts on February 4 at Sleepy Ridge Golf Course. Dress code is “cowboy themed.”