Student Council recently hosted its annual winter dance on February 18th. The Sweethearts’ Dance was held at the Mall of America at the Parkview Events center. The venue had a very bright and thrilling atmosphere. Students had mixed reactions to the dance, some called it exciting and fun, while others called it boring.

“There wasn’t much to do at the dance, but it was fun! The balloon arch was very successful and the dance had a nice atmosphere.” Sophomore Nina Nguyen said. “The dance last year was much more full and had more hype surrounding it. This year’s dance was kind of boring, but it had really nice decorations and photo booths.” Sophomore Laelah Stephney added. The main complaint of this year’s winter dance was the lack of attendance. “Barely anyone was there. Student council should’ve done a better job at encouraging students to show up, especially with a venue as big and expensive as this one.” Sophomore Bettie Buzzell said.

The dance was mostly similar to any other South school dance; it cost $20 for admission and had free snacks/beverages for all who attended. Student Council sold tickets for 2 weeks. (February 2nd – 17th) Everyone who wanted to purchase a ticket had to have a signed permission slip before purchasing.

This year, student council sold 110 tickets and had an attendance of approximately 90. “Our goal was 200 tickets, but we believe that we didn’t hit the goal because a lot of people were busy that weekend because it was one of the long ones. This is something that we will likely change for next year.” President Ezra Gearheart stated. Student Council not hitting the sales goal was troubling, seeing that the council spent an abundant amount of their funds on the venue, decor, and food. The cost of the venue was $3,300, and the cost of food and decorations was around $100. This, coupled with the fact that they only made $2,200 dollars from ticket sales means that Student Council lost around $1,200 from the sweethearts dance.

Dances at South have not been the most successful this year, and students think it’s because of the lack of original and creative ideas that went into the production of this year’s dances. “Every dance that took place this year didn’t have as many activities as previous dances. The themes have been done before and the planning committee’s decoration budget seems low,” Junior Rosie Puotinen said. 

Another reason why students think dance attendance is low is due to the fact that seniors aren’t hyping up or attending dances. “People will listen to seniors, if they say that something’s fun or exciting, underclassmen will most likely listen. Last year, seniors did a lot of work on promoting the glam ball, which led to a lot of people being excited and attending the dance. This year, barely any seniors attended or hyped up the dance, which led to the dance being unsuccessful.” Buzzell explained. 

Although losing over $1,000 is a pretty big blow to Student Council, they still have a great number of funds and will continue to plan events to their best ability and listen to what students want.

“Though we spent about $1,000 over how much we made, we have a lot of flexibility in the student council budget as well as continuous support from the South High Foundation. Covid destroyed a lot of long-standing traditions, and even though it is slow-going to start new ones like the sweethearts dance, we think they will all turn out well in the long run,” Gearheart explained.