From Drake’s “God’s Plan” to the Walmart Yodel Kid EDM remix, music was playing in the student union where a large space was cleared for students to dance. Pizza was served for free on the side, and boba was four dollars each. Class officers were seen scrambling about and setting up last-minute props, from putting up lights to neatly placing masks on the tables.
On April 13, MVHS leadership organized a masquerade party for the class of 2020. Set from 6 to 9 p.m., the dance was meant to be a bonding experience for the class of 2020, proposed by sophomore Heather Bassman. Tonight was the first time the school held this kind of dance. Scott Victorine, a history teacher and the class advisor of 2020, believed the dance to be a risk, a risk to be respected since it was a fresh idea.
“My initial reaction was: ‘great now I have to go supervise’— just joking,” Victorine said. “Seriously, it was cool that they were going to take a risk and as far as I knew, hadn’t been done before because there is a junior prom and a senior prom, and this isn’t necessarily the same thing, but I think it’s cool that they planned an activity for the class of 2020.”
The officer team for the class of 2020 began planning two to three months prior to the event. They underwent a long process of figuring out the actual logistics, such as talking to class advisors and office staff to rent out a space for the event. After checking in with the administration, the class officers were able to finalize their party after their motion passed. The class of 2020 president, Brett Park was initially unsure of what to expect going into the party, as it was a first for the whole school. For this reason, he, and the rest of the class council, took special consideration when preparing for this event, with a variety of activities and food for their class.
“We’re definitely not the first grade to hold a class bonding event, but this is the first class bonding of a masquerade party,” Park said. “Hopefully, we have some board games for them to do. We have free pizza and we have some boba for four dollars and music in general, kind of a photo background [and] we have some lights set up.”
With only a few minutes left till the actual dance, the officer team scurried to finalize their decorations and anxiously waited for the sophomores to fill in. At 6:00 p.m., the doors opened, and slowly, small groups of sophomores walked in, paying one dollar at the door. The class of 2020 social manager, Christopher Cellini, explains that the tickets were priced low in order to make the party more accessible to the students.
“That’s why we made our tickets one dollar — it’s cheap,” Cellini said. “This makes it much more accessible for students.”
As it was a school dance, the music was required to have clean lyrics. After the class officers analyzed the thematic contents of the songs, the final setlist was made.
“I didn’t actually [pick out the music]; we put out a Google form and sent [it] out to the class, made sure all the music was PG [and] we asked if they wanted anything specific,” sophomore class treasurer Surya Ramesh said. “There was a form they had to fill out. They had to fill out the song’s name and then the Spotify link.”
Ashika Jaiswal, next year’s class president of 2019, also hopes to initiate more bonding events for her class, especially since they will be seniors soon. Through the various events planned for senior year, her ultimate goal is to help bring the students closer before they graduate and separate ways.
“Along with senior sunrise, having a separate day like Cozy Cafe or having something just for seniors – to talk about college apps and stuff like that … that’s more of a serious side,” Jaiswal said. “Or a class bonding event where we can make class shirts and tie-dye and wear them on the first day after break or stuff like that.”
The dance, although a novel idea, was not expected to garner too much attention. After all, it was the day before spring break and students had already left on vacation. To help brighten the party and hopefully attract more people, students pitched different song ideas to Ramesh.
“A lot of people submitted songs,” Ramesh said. “From the form, there were 64 songs … around three and a half hours of music. So that’s cool.”
Nevertheless, the dance was a success, for it allowed students to socialize and venture out of their comfort zones. Though this was a first for MVHS, with ongoing interest and success, the masquerade dance may become a new trend in the near future.
“I’m kind of interested to see how the turnout will be and how it’s perceived by the class of 2020,” Victorine said. “And kind of just see who shows up and how they like it.”
