Steven Chen ’08, Yidi Ge ’08, and Yifan Cao ’08 get their groove on at the recent Halloween Dance. PHOTO/Vivian Brodie '08

Last week, Choate’s class of 2008 came together in the JJAC to celebrate the year’s spookiest holiday with style. The tradition of the Senior Halloween Dance at Choate began six years ago, when sixth form deans requested that the annual Halloween dance be made into a special event exclusively for seniors. Before this, the Halloween dance has been a typical SAC dance, inclusive of all forms and taking place on the Saturday nearest to Halloween. Once transformed into a sixth form event, it became special because it took place on Halloween night, giving seniors shorter study hours and late curfew if that night happened to be a school night.

Accomodating Seniors

This year, however, a slight change in tradition was made: the date of the dance was changed to November 6th instead of October 31st. This change was made to coincide with the API classes’ trip to Washington D.C., which took place on Halloween and would have caused a large number of seniors to miss the much-anticipated event. Student Council President Jin Ha ’08 says, “Although some people were discouraged that we wouldn’t celebrate on Halloween night, we thought that the phrase ‘the more, the merrier’ definitely applied to the dance.”

Organization for the dance was a collaborative effort between the sixth form deans, the sixth form Student Council representatives, and the Student Activity Center staff. Because it is exclusive to seniors, the dance is typically funded by the sixth form budget. One interesting feature of the event was the spread of refreshments; rather than putting out massive amounts of candy for partygoers to munch on, the deans had the dance catered with arrangements of cheese and fruit. Director of Student Activities Christopher Bielizna, who was a central figure in organizing and regulating the dance, notes that dynamic lighting created a great atmosphere for a Halloween event. In addition to using things like black lights and laser lights, Mr. Bielizna explains, “As the dance went on, I would dim the lights more and more, which really made for an excellent mood.”

‘A Night to Remember’

The consensus among students and faculty is that the dance was a night to remember. As the class of 2008’s first senior event, it had students excited and ready to party. Eloise True ’08 says, “It was the first exclusively senior party we’ve had, and it was obvious that everyone was stoked… I think it set the tone for our last year at Choate, which will hopefully be full of experiences we’ll never forget.” It seems likely that senior year will yield some of the best times of the class of 2008’s Choate career. Jin Ha says, “In comparison to past form events, the Senior Halloween Dance definitely brought the largest crowd and the most enthusiasm.”

The costumes that students wore were another entertaining and creative aspect of the Halloween Dance. The wide variety of outfits present at the event included Choate math teacher Mr. Olmo, a group of Japanese schoolgirls, Betty Boop, a mustard bottle, and a multitude of creatures of the Harry Potter mythos. There was even a very interesting group costume involving one student dressed as the sun and two others connected to him dressed as clouds. “This dance in particular is very lively because the students bring their own energy to it,” remarks Mr. Bielizna. The dance’s D.J. even wore a costume, which Bielizna cites as an example of people “going the extra mile” to help the seniors have a good time.

Despite the diversity in costumes, a major underlying theme of the dance was form unity. In the face of the end of their days at Choate, seniors are really looking to bring themselves together before the end of their high school career. “Senior year is, in my mind, about coming together as a class and really bonding,” says True. Mr. Bielizna recalls observing the outer unity of the students while tossing them glow sticks from above: “Imagine a crowd of people dancing and reaching their hands in the air in perfect unison… It was something to see.” With any luck, the class of 2008 will come together to make many more memories like those from the Halloween Dance this year.