Heading into the school year, the prom committee knew that something had to be changed in order to make the dance better. So to encourage the students to dance throughout the night, the seniors and juniors of Yutan High School spent some time in the weeks leading up to prom learning line dances.

“I think it got all of the students really excited about dancing and created a sort of hype for the dance,” junior class sponsor Ginger Eikmeier said. 

Because solid dance moves may not always come naturally to everyone, learning line dances was the best option to get everyone involved. 

“Last year’s prom dancing was kind of rough,” said math teacher Joel Carrillo, who helped chaperone the dance. “I think since most people now had a better idea of the line dances, it made them less uncomfortable.” 

With the help of Carrillo and seniors Maycee Hays and Maura Tichota, the students practiced a few basic steps during Access Period in the weeks prior to prom.

“I was glad that we could take the time to teach line dances to the students because I think it encouraged them to stay at the dance longer,” Hays said.

The seniors and juniors felt that this was a great use of their AP time.

“Practicing line dances in AP was the perfect time to go through them because everyone was able to be there and learn them before prom came,” junior Britney Zeleny said.

The students learned line dances for six different songs and also some basic swing dancing moves.

“My favorite was ‘Wobble’ because it was the easiest one to learn, and I got the hang of it right away,” senior Jesse Kult said.

Dance lessons were not the only thing done to make this year’s prom better. From the start of the school year, junior class sponsor Ginger Eikmeier was determined to find a better DJ for the dance. 

“I really wanted someone with high energy who would engage with the students and keep the music flowing,” Eikmeier said.

This is exactly what Eikmeier received for the dance, and the students enjoyed the high energy that was brought to their dance floor by the DJ.

“The DJ made a big impact on the dance and was really good about leading us into one song after another,” Zeleny said.

As a surprise for the students who stayed late at the dance, the post prom committee also offered to put on a random drawing of cash to be given to three students still at the dance throughout the last hour of the night.

“It was really awesome of the post prom to offer the little incentives,” Eikmeier said. “Even though I don’t think it was the only reason people stayed, it was just a nice bonus for the students and it added some excitement.”

The students were thankful for this added bonus and agreed that it truly increased the excitement for the dance.

“I had no clue that they were putting on this drawing, and I was excited when I was drawn as the first name,” senior Connor Engel said.

As the night of prom came to a close, Eikmeier was pleased to see how many students were on the dance floor throughout the entire night.

“We had probably the biggest group of students ever still on the dance floor at the end of the night,” Eikmeier said. “It made all the hard work of transforming the gym much more rewarding since the students stuck around to enjoy it.”

Skylar Crews was one of the students who stayed until the end of the dance at 11 p.m., and she noticed the difference the dance improvements made.

“Practicing the line dances definitely made prom more fun this year because everyone wasn’t just standing around doing nothing,” Crews said. “I think overall it made everyone more comfortable to dance with each other.”

Overall, Eikmeier and the other chaperones hope to continue the changes into future years.

“This is something that we need to continue doing for the future proms ahead because it really had an impact on the dance this year,” Carrillo said. “In the end, it was truly worth it.”