To cap off Homecoming week, MVHS students attended the annual Homecoming dance in the rally court on Saturday, Oct. 5. While the event was supposed to be held in the gym, a heat wave prompted MVHS administration to make the decision on Thursday evening to move the dance outside. According to ASB Executive CASL Liaison Siyona Kathuria, the last-minute change posed a large problem to those running the dance.
“The biggest challenge was the last-minute adaptation we had to make, because we had planned for the dance to be inside,” Kathuria said. “It’s been planned like that since June, but two days ago, we had to change it to be outside. So it was really hard to tell the student body and deal with the backlash from that.”
To adapt to the change, Leadership reused backdrops, posters and balloons from other Homecoming events and moved them into the rally court, altering them to fit the outdoor environment better. Despite the sudden change, principal Ben Clausnitzer believes that there are still many upsides to the situation, which led to a good turnout and great student reception.
“It seems like a good group of students showed up,” Clausnitzer said. “There were about 830 students that walked through the door, and that’s a really good number for us, and hopefully they enjoyed the dance and had fun.”
Games were set up in the Student Union and next to the library, and two food trucks for The Waffle Roost and Tres Hermanos lined the exterior of the gym. Leadership had originally contacted the food trucks a few months ago but promptly canceled due to regulations on not having food at an indoor dance. Following the change in venue, Leadership reached out again and the vendors agreed to come. While she believes that students received additions to the event like the food trucks well, Kathuria acknowledges both settings have pros and cons.
“Inside, I definitely feel like it’s a lot more sweaty and it’s a lot harder to hear people if you want to talk,” Kathuria said. “Outside, I feel like I have more space and I’m more comfortable. But also, when I think of Homecoming, I think of an inside dance.”
When junior Kavya Kotecha heard from a friend that the dance was relocated to the rally court, she was initially confused and didn’t anticipate having a good time. However, her perception of the event changed after she moshed at the dance with her friends.
“I think it was really fun, but the guys were moshing and stepping on me,” Kotecha said. “Their backs were sweaty and it was wet, but it was really fun in front of other people. Outside was a lot less claustrophobic, so that was good, and there was a lot more space. I thought it would be a lot worse than it was.”
Even though Kathuria says the change made the dance less visually appealing because everyone was more spread out, she concurs with Kotecha’s views on the Homecoming dance being a successful event.
“We were definitely a little confused as to how the dance would work,” Kathuria said. “But for the way it is, I would definitely say that it went really well, and we had a good outcome.”
