Winter Formal, Sadie Hawkins, Spring Fling, Black and White Ball— what do all these things have in common? They’re all dances Monte Vista doesn’t hold.

    That’s right— every year, Monte Vista High School holds the three main dances: Prom, Ball, and Homecoming, sprinkled along with a few others throughout the year, but our school actually has less dances than high schools typically do.

    “[If we had more dances], that would be a lot more fun,” senior Zandra Sturtevant said. “It’s a good way to get people to get together.”

    While we hold around four dances per year, other schools, such as Monta Vista in Cupertino and Dougherty Valley in San Ramon, have as many as up to seven.

    “If people miss [a dance]—since they limit the amount of tickets they can buy—they [could] just go to another one,” senior Gita Rohanitazangi said.

    Although both Homecoming and Prom are the most popular at school, other dances are often overlooked and underappreciated.

    “I just don’t really care about the other dances,” junior Sarah Cynn said.

    But at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, students flock to nearly all dances and tickets are often sold out immediately.

    “I do know a lot of people that have winter formals at their schools,” sophomore Tori Delmonte said. “They say it’s really fun.”

     Blue Pearl, a 1920’s-themed dance, is held annually in the Fremont Union High School District and allows students to use their swing dancing skills (usually learned in P.E.) on the dancefloor as well as enjoy music from Gatsby’s era.

    “Wearing a skirt and swinging around… I think it’d be awesome and fun,” sophomore Carina Romanov said.

    To avoid the taboo of attending an unpopular dance, students often dismiss the events as “underclassmen-only” or “freshman-only” dances and refrain from going at all. With more dances, students would have more opportunities to attend school activities.

    “I think it would be cool, since Homecoming is the only [dance] that everyone can go to,” sophomore Jasreen Gill said.

    Although the current interest for more dances seems to be high, past observations show otherwise.

    “We’ve had winter dances and other dances in the past, but we haven’t had enough signups,” principal Janet Terranova said. “If we want [more dances], we just need people to come and Leadership to put it on.”