As students come back from winter break and adjust to their new classes, students like senior Andrea Aragon-Alvarado are getting ready for the first school dance since quarantine. 

“It feels pretty good. It is a little, all very fast-paced,” Alvarado said. “But we’ve never done anything like this, so it’s very exciting.”

After the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, the school announced that there will be a school dance in the MPR from 6-9 p.m. on Feb. 3. Along with having the dance open to all grade levels, admission, food and drinks are all free of charge. Students and staff are both excited and nervous about having a dance in school after such a long time. 

“You will be able to dress up in whatever decade you choose,” Daniel Pearl Magnet High School School Climate Advocate Magaly Ruiz said. “This is not a formal dance by any means. It’s comfortable.”

Following the theme of “Dance through the Decades,” students can request their favorite songs to be played by scanning a QR code or clicking a link to a Google Form on Schoology. Students are also allowed to bring a friend from outside of school by completing a “dance guest approval form” by Feb. 1. 

“The school is really working on continuing to build a community and making this a place that people really want to be,” Leadership teacher Timothy Hughes said. “I think things like having school dances will start to make us feel a little more normal again.”

With the help of Leadership and Associated Student Body (ASB), seniors hope that this dance will not only be fun for the lowerclassmen but also inspire them to organize events like this in the future. 

“I hope they’ll take a look at it and honestly, of course enjoy it and be like ‘Wow! I would want to do this,’” ASB Treasurer Samantha Willett said. “So I’m really hoping that like when I leave, there will be a group of kids who step up and do what we do.”