In the past years, the Student Council has been hosting the Winter Dance for the High School students. It was similar to the 8th grade end of the year socials, as people would go to a hotel downtown to enjoy the night with their friends. With this year comes change, and a lot of effort has been put into revamping the image of the Winter Dance. Here is some information regarding this special event from Ice Somboon, one of the many amazing representatives of the Student Council.
What is the decision to change the event to Wonderland dance?
In the previous years, we have always had an event called the Winter Dance, which was hosted in luxurious hotels downtown. They were always enjoyable, however there were also several problems. The ticket entrance to the Winter Dance usually ranged from 1000 to 1500 baht, almost equivalent to the Prom ticket, since student council has to cover the price for the hotel venue. The expensive tickets discouraged most students from attending the Winter Dance. Furthermore, it also discouraged most Freshmen and Sophomores from attending the 9/10 Dance, and Juniors and Seniors from attending Prom at the end of the school year because of both dances’ similarities. The Student Council’s main goals for our events are to create a place for students to take a break from school, have the events be accessible, affordable, and enjoyable. Winter Dance, however, did not meet these goals. We have also just learned from the HS Admins this year that Munch n’ Music will either be postponed to the next semester or cancelled completely. We understand that Munch n’ Music is an event that service clubs can raise money, so we see Wonderland Dance as a great opportunity for clubs to sell food. Not just baked goods, but finger foods, real foods, and drinks as well. Wonderland Dance therefore matches our vision of a student-led event because it is accessible, it is at school, it is free and will be as enjoyable as the Winter Dance.
What will separate this dance from past years?
Wonderland Dance is a completely new change, and also an experiment, in a sense that it is the first High School dance event hosted at school, and it is free. Also, it allows service clubs to raise money through food and drinks. Our students right now may have a fixed mindset that enjoyable dances should only be hosted at hotels. Hopefully, this event will change that. Despite these differences, Wonderland Dance will still hold the ideals of a great dance: it combines all four classes, which increases our spirit as a school, people can still ask each other to the dance, and it still be a lot of fun.
What words do you have that could encourage students to come to Wonderland?
Like I said, this event is new, therefore I understand that people will have lot of doubts. But keep in mind that Student Council consists of students just like you, and so as fellow classmates and friends we probably share similar ideas of what “fun” means. Again, these events are hosted for the student body, not for the student council. So, I would like to ask you to just try it out and approach it with a positive attitude. We would love to hear your feedback on this event, and continue to improve ourselves. December 4th is a Friday with alternate dress day before a long weekend, so there is really nothing to lose. Change can be intimidating, but try it out anyway.
While it may be different since its installment, it looks to be a vast improvement from past events. 2015 is the year that I entered High School, and for someone who has not attended the Winter Dance, Wonderland seems like a step up, and looks to be a highlight of the 2015-2016 school year.
Jack D
