With only a few weeks between two of the biggest school dances at New Trier, Turnabout and Prom, students are beginning to feel the stress that comes with planning groups, costumes, after parties, and more.
Activities Director Stacey Kolack explained, “The date for Turnabout is selected for February or March due to gym availability and other major events going on in our calendar that students would be involved with. We don’t want them to feel like they can’t go to the dance because they’ve got a big choral performance or something like that. We do our best, but it’s not always possible because our students are all so involved.”
Kolack also stated, “We need to check the calendar for conflicts; you don’t want to have a dance on the same night as a play. And then you also need to find space. Dances take place in gyms, so we need to make sure it’s on a date that there’s no home gym use. Because of all of the setup involved, dances can take up to twenty-four hours at least to set up for their big production with lights and everything. So it’s not just those three hours that the gym has to be open.”
Global Exchange Club sponsor, Moira Gitau helps plan Turnabout. She described, “My options for scheduling are very limited. We try not to put it too close to the beginning of February, because putting it so close to finals makes it very hard for everyone. So this year, my first choice was for Saturday, Feb. 21, but Winter Carnival got it. So my other option was to go much earlier and that was going to be hard, so I decided this year I would try going into March.”
However, some students feel that if the two dances are so close together, the school should only have one event all together. Junior Olivia Bacon explained, “It would be much better if the dances were spread out or if the school just got rid of one of the dances. I mean how many costume-themed dances do we need?”
Junior Bina Saipi added, “I think it would be better to have Turnabout earlier and spread out the dances because they’re too close.”
Bacon also discussed how some students can feel when they are not asked to the dances, “The stress and drama could also really hurt some people’s self esteem or make them not want to go at all if they aren’t asked.”
Many students agree that with the dance so close together, it adds a lot of unneeded stress to their lives. Junior Rabel Kapadia said, “They should be farther apart so you have time to look for a dress, possibly get a date and all that.”
Senior Riley McNulty expressed her stress, “It puts a lot of pressure on finding outfits and making plans for the dances in such a short period of time.”
Several students mentioned the fear of having Prom and Turnabout so close together. One such fear is that boys will ask separate Prom dates before Turnabout even happens. McNulty said, “People are a little worried that their Turnabout date is going to ask someone else to Prom before Turnabout.”
It seems that the biggest worry, above finding dresses, groups, and themes, is finding a date to the dance. “It’s already so stressful for some girls to find dates for Turnabout and then having the added pressure to wait to be asked to Prom is even worse. Especially if guys decide to ask before Turnabout even happens, it’s just unnecessary stress and drama,” said Bacon.
Junior Kate Andrews said, “As soon as you finish planning and getting everything set and ready for Turnabout, you have to start thinking and getting organized for Prom. It’s too much having them so close together. There’s no break from the planning and stress that come along with school dances.”
Junior, Paige Phillips would not want the dances to be more spread out because she likes that they are towards the end of the year. Phillips said, “I think, even though people never want to admit it, everyone likes the hype of having a dance and trying to find a date, dress or costume, after party, and all that.”