By the sounds of it, this is no ordinary dance. In place of the formerly annual Battle of the Bands, the Student Activities Committee (SAC) has scheduled a black-light dance for early May. SAC co-presidents Jeron Mariani and Max Lowenthal hope to reach out to a wider audience through this dance, even if it comes at the cost of Battle of the Bands.
Unlike previous St. Paul Academy and Summit School dances, the students themselves have a much larger role in the overall experience and feel of the dance. Multiple student DJs will have the opportunity to share their own selections of dance-worthy music. “We’ll have a little shift in music ideally. It probably will be similar to other dances but we’re hoping to appeal to a larger audience,” Lowenthal said. The student DJs will be seniors August King and Nick Scott, with electrical and technological help from senior Steven Olson.

This dance will debut SPA’s first ever use of black-lights.“Mr. Hughes suggested that we have a black light dance, and we thought that it would be fun. People responded positively to it, so we went with it.” Mariani said. Students are indeed looking forward to this new dance more so than previous dances. Junior Katrina Hilton hopes there will be improvement in the music choices at the dance, “I went to the most recent dances at the beginning of the year. They were fine, I didn’t really like the music at those,” Hilton said. However, talk of student DJs and black-lights have captured Hilton’s interest: “I might go to this one because I heard that there were gonna be students DJing… the idea of like, the black-light makes it sound like it’s a club or something” Hilton said.

For Lowenthal and Mariani, this event is a chance to give students what they really want out of a school dance. The cost is $7 if students are dressed in neon or white, and $10 if they are not. The combination of black-lights and student-picked music will be something different, and something that everyone should see.  “It’s not just dress up and dance, there are other elements,” Lowenthal said. “I think it will be fun,” Hilton said.