Heard that MVHS’s 1920s dance club experience is coming up soon? Think again.
Due to the enormous amount of school events in the month of November, Student Life Commission’s second annual 1920s-themed Blue Pearl dance had been postponed until March 2011 in a unanimous decision between the administration and the Student Life Commission. According to the Dean of Students Denae Moore, this year’s Blue Pearl dance will be held on March 25, 2011.
“Originally we had hoped that it would be in the fall. We had eyeballed a date of Nov. 19, but that was the same day as the District Dodgeball Tournament, so we don’t want to have to conflict with that,” Moore said.
In addition to the tournament, the first two Fridays of November are occupied with play performances, and the last Friday is during Thanksgiving break. Furthermore, the gym is currently booked throughout the school year, and the only window for a dance event is the month of March.
Another issue adding to the postponement of the event is the lack of available staff to watch over or participate in these events. For example, both Moore and Dean of Students Michael Hicks actively participate in each year’s District Dodgeball Tournament. Staff members have to take time off of their daily schedules to chaperone for events like dances or sports games, and having to watch for events on both Fridays and Saturdays is way too much of a burden for the staff.
According to commission members junior Steffanie Sum and seniors Kelly Jackson and Lillian Yao, another reason the Blue Pearl dance cannot be held in the months up to March is that there are dances already planned during each of those months.
In January, there is Winter Ball, Sadies in Februrary, and Junior Prom in April. Scheduling in the most reasonable way possible, it made sense to the administration and Student Life Commission to place the Blue Pearl dance in March. Other than conflicting events, Student Life also took into consideration the lifestyle of potential attendees during certain time periods. For example, first semester finals eliminated the possibility of Blue Pearl occurring on the last school week of December.
“Scheduling at MVHS is a little bit of a nightmare, [mostly] because of the number of sports teams we have and everything else,” Moore said.
According to Jackson and Yao, Student Life Commission originally planned to have this dance during the first semester, and with the basketball team occupying the gym for the remainder of the first semester, the only solution that Student Life and the administration had for this dilemma was to push the date for Blue Pearl into the second term without having to cancel the event. However, with this extra delay comes more concentrated consideration and planning to make this year’s Blue Pearl better than the first Blue Pearl.
Like last year, the MVHS Jazz Band will be playing various tunes from the ‘20s, and this year Student Life is going to try and get the Variations Choir to perform during the dance. There are also ideas for student-run prom-style photo shoots for the participants. All in all, this year’s Blue Pearl dance is expected to have more activities compared to last year’s with all the additional time for planning.
“Actually, November’s a very good month for [Blue Pearl] to be held. There’s just not enough time,” Moore said.
