Prom 2011 a lacking experience

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Marbles Kids Museum, the 2011 Prom venue
Marbles Kids Museum, the 2011 Prom venue

Leesville’s 2011 Prom was predicted to be a magical night full of beautiful dresses and marbles galore. However, there were key features that prevented the dance from reaching its ultimate potential. Actually, in a word, it was just plain bad. Here’s why.

1. Dear teachers and administrators, you already had your prom. Kindly get off the dance floor.
Leesville faculty and staff were in abundance on Saturday, April 9 at Marbles Kids Museum. They hid in corners, surrounded tables, manned ticket booths and breathed down students’ necks. The. Entire. Night. These walkie-talkie-wielding chaperones surrounded the edge of the dance floor and watched everyone like hawks, sniffing out bad behavior despite requiring everyone blow into Breathalyzers at the door. Believe me, staff: Mission accomplished. There was no fun to be held under your mindful watch.

2. Hey Mr. DJ, put a different record on. Please.
Just because a DJ plays Top 40 music does not mean that it is music people can dance to. Jumping up and down, fist-pumping and screaming the lyrics may be fun for some people, but a dance usually means that you dance to music. Music that is danceable. How, pray tell, does one dance to P!nk?

3. Bright lights, big failure.
Shining a spotlight on the dance floor does not bode well for a fun-filled night of, well, anything. A brightly-lit atmosphere at a dance ensures lots of standing around and complaining from students who feel too uncomfortable to put their dance moves on display. Dim lighting sets the mood and puts students at ease and more likely to enjoy themselves on the dance floor.

4. Wide open spaces
What was most appealing about the Sisters’ Garden location for Prom last year was the small space of the dancing area. A small surface area means those who want to dance are forced to get close to each other and form a large clump, thus no one can pick anyone else out of the group and stare at their horrible dancing. Marbles was too wide open for those less gifted in their dancing abilities to feel secure busting a move.

It doesn’t take much to make a high school dance successful. It also doesn’t take much to completely blow it. Simple adjustments make the difference between a night to remember and a night students wish they could forget. Mere lighting and size of the dance area may seem like minute, silly details, but these tiny changes are essential to ensuring a decent time for all.

2 COMMENTS

  1. It sounds like someone was a little grumpy! Oh dear! You should’ve just danced the night away sugar.

    “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”

    -Lou Holtz

    It can apply to your prom experience, cynical young child. You just gotta boogey like no one is watching! It is what you make it.

  2. worth mentioning… #2 – music is chosen via a very selective and time-consuming process months and months in advance of the event, so don’t expect recent or vulgar music, even though that’s probably what people expect. they are wrong.

    also, if #3 were “fixed” there’d be more reason for #1, wouldn’t there…?

    (if this comment isn’t posted, that’s OK as long as Alex sees it)

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