Blog # 63: Dancing with the teachers

This past weekend I went down to my home town to attend a special event that is held every year at the high school. It is called “Dancing with the Teachers.” This event is held every November right before Thanksgiving and is a fundraiser for the upcoming prom that following spring for the junior and seniors. All the money that is raised the night of the show goes towards the dance, dinner, decorations, dj, prom queen and king crowns, and the after prom.
This event is extremely similar to the famous television show called “Dancing with the Stars” but instead of celebrities dancing with each other it is teachers dancing with students. How this works is that all the teachers and faculty members including the principle and vice principle of the high school are all included in a round of voting from the entire student body. The voting is taken place several months prior to the event to allow plenty of dance practice between the teacher and the student. Each student picks 10 teachers and after all the votes are counted the top 10 teachers with the most votes are the lucky ones who get to dance at the event. Now for the students who get picked for the event can only be juniors and seniors since the fundraiser is for the junior and senior prom. After the teachers have all been decided whether they are male and females determines how many male students and how many female students are picked. The students are picked by the teachers like how the teachers were picked by the students. After the teachers and students have all been picked determining how they are paired up is then determined. They are paired up by height. The male teachers obviously dance with a female student and a female teacher dances with a male student. Practicing for this event was very critical. They had to learn a 5 minute dance with their partner in about 6 weeks. Practice was during the schools study hour which was twice a week.
The main difference between the television show “Dancing with the Stars” and “Dancing with the Teachers” is the way the pair dances with each other. On the show you see a very connected sexual type of dance, but that would be a huge mistake for a teacher and a student to interact with each other on stage. The dance between the students and the teachers are very tasteful but still fun to watch. Everyone involved in the event is all dressed up in night gowns and tuxedos.
When I went to this event I thought it was presented very nicely and elegant. The lights were nicely dim with soft classical music as everyone was seated. I thought this event was well more organized than the Kansas Dance Festival. All we had to do was pay the three dollars and sit wherever we wanted to. This event lasted about an hour and a half with other entertainment involved. There were a lot of people to support the fundraiser. I had a blast at the event and hope my home town continues to do this every year to help out the prom.