Photograph by Douglas Rider
Bo Nielson, 11, a sixth-grader from Redwood Middle School fixes his hair as he gets ready to go to his first semi-formal dance Friday night at the City of Saratoga Winter Wonderland semi-formal dance.
Winter Wonderland
Youth commission's semi-formal dance a glittering success
By Kara Chalmers
Photographs by Douglas Rider
At first, even the sounds of Britney and the Back Street Boys, pulsating from the DJ's speakers, was not enough to get the middle school boys dancing with the middle school girls at the Saratoga Youth Commission's winter semi-formal dance Dec. 15. While groups of girls danced near the DJ's stage, many boys clustered in the back, or even in the community center's lounge outside the makeshift dance hall.
But by 9 p.m., one hour before the dance ended, almost all the teens and pre-teens, some 350 total, were at least on the dance floor, although some were standing stock-still. Some boys and girls had even ventured out of their comfortable circles of same-sex friends.
Slow songs, where all one has to do is bearhug his or her partner, helped. Like a school bell, the first slow song had emptied the areas surrounding the dance hall, and brought many teens together.
Photograph by Douglas Rider
Bridget Barringer, Amanda Zarate and Jenna Nyblom pose for portraits at the dance. Portraits were included with the admission price, along with pizza and soda.
At times, the community center room, decorated with Christmas lights, seemed like a San Francisco dance club, with the cyclic music and the musky smell from the fog machine. Except, of course, for the sixth-grade boys pushing each other into girls.
The $15 annual semi-formal dance, the price of which included pizza, a soda, a party favor and a portrait, was expected to draw the highest number of teens of any of the commission's dances this year, according to Recreation Supervisor Beverly Tucker. Tucker said the city hired some 30 chaperones, which was not a problem since many people were happy to volunteer and be part of the action.
For many teens, the dance, which began at 7:30, was much more than a 2 1/2-hour event. Many spent hours looking for the right outfit, putting on makeup, or giggling as they got ready with their friends. And while the boys and the girls and the sixth-graders and the eighth-graders may have differed in their preparation strategies and nervousness level, they all had one thing in common-excitement.
Photograph by Douglas Rider
Chanel Aveni and Alyssa Johnson are the first in a crowd of people to start dancing.
'Nervous Excited'
Surrounded by the necessities of adolescence--curling irons, elastics for braces and all kinds of makeup--Bridget Barringer, 11, sat on the covered toilet seat in her bathroom while her 15-year-old sister, Adrienne, applied shadow to her eyes. Bridget's best friend, Amanda Zarate, also 11, watched and waited for her turn.
"Use white for the bottom, Bridgy, then you do the blue," Zarate said.
Both girls, who attend the sixth grade at Redwood Middle School, were getting ready to go to the semi-formal dance. While they had attended a community center dance this past September, the dance was their first semi-formal one. They bought their outfits--both wore black skirts, on the long side, tank tops and strappy high-heeled sandals--about a week before.
Photograph by Douglas Rider
Bridget Barringer, 11, from Redwood Middle School, checks and touches up her makeup as her sister puts on Amanda Zarate's makeup at Barringer's house in preparation for the City Of Saratoga Winter Wonderland semi-formal dance Friday.
After the makeup application was complete, Zarate did Barringer's hair, in a type of French twist, and then did her own. By 5 p.m., the girls were dressed, made up and coifed, and had about two hours to wait. The girls were nervous
"Nervous excited," Zarate clarified.
By about 6:50 p.m., both girls glittered--literally. All their finishing touches finished, including toenail polish and glitter on their shoulders, the girls eagerly waited for the moment when Barringer's mother, Connie, would drive them to the community center. They hoped that what they were wearing was formal enough.
According to Connie Barringer, Bridget was excited about the dance, so excited in fact that she had nightmares about missing it the whole night before.
Photograph by Douglas Rider
John McCready, 11, sixth-grader at Redwood Middle School, puts on his Christmas tie as Bo Nielson ties his shoe at Nielson's house to get ready to go to their first semi-formal dance. McCready and Nielson said they were going to meet their girlfriends at the dance.
Basketball and Hair Gel
Minutes after running LA Looks Hair gel through their close-cropped hair cuts, Bo Nielson, 11, and his best friend, John McCready, 11, let off some steam before leaving for the dance. As Nielson's father, John, yelled to the boys to be careful to not get sweaty, the two Redwood Middle School sixth-graders took turns shooting hoops in the Nielson's yard.
Unlike some of the older boys at the dance, who looked as though they were wearing the same outfit they wore to school that day, Nielson and McCready looked sharp. They dressed identical almost, in khaki pants and long-sleeved white shirts, except McCready also wore a tie--a Christmas tie. According to McCready, he was wearing his church clothes. Like the girls, the boys "got ready" together, too, starting around 5 p.m. at the Nielson's.
For the boys, this was their first formal dance as well. As Nielson buttoned the shirt cuff of his best friend, he admitted he was a bit nervous, but mostly excited. The boys said they like dancing, and their eyes lit up and they laughed as they mentioned they like slow dancing.
Photograph by Douglas Rider
John McCready dances with his girlfriend Cassie Bac.
Old Pros
As Adrienne Barringer was applying eyeshadow to her sister's eyelids, Alyssa Johnson, 13, was having her makeup done as well, by makeup artist Kelly Hattey, at Preston Wynne day spa in Saratoga, much to Hattey's chagrin.
According to Hattey, if she had her way, she would not put any makeup on Johnson's face, but she settled on a "light" application and some lip-gloss.
"It's hard to put makeup on someone so young," Hattey said, and smiled at Johnson as she handed the eyelash curler to her.
Later, Johnson said Hattey had too light a touch. She put some more of her own makeup on herself.
"It's too plain ... blah," she said looking in the bathroom mirror, as she and Chanel Aveni, also 13, primped at Aveni's house one hour before the dance.
Photograph by Douglas Rider
Sixth-graders Amanda Zarate and Bridget Barringer and eighth-grader Chanel Aveni from Redwood Middle School wait in line for a slice of pizza and a soda.
While the sixth-grade girls did each other's hair, makeup and nails, Aveni, and Johnson, both eighth-graders at Redwood Middle School, went a different route. Aveni had her hair done professionally--curled, glittered and in a twist--which took an hour, and her nails French manicured, with one fingernail on each hand set with rhinestones, "to match my dress," she said. She spent $65 for both her hair and nails.
Johnson's makeup application at Preston Wynne cost $45. Both girls wore high-heeled shoes and long black formal dresses--Aveni's with rhinestones across the top--to the dance.
Aveni and Johnson were just excited for the winter dance, as they giggled and joked with each other in the mirror. Any nervousness had probably worn off two years ago. They remembered when they attended the semiformal as sixth graders, looking like nerds, they said.
"The first time, it was all...," Aveni paused as she struggled for the right word.
"Nerve-wracking," Johnson finished.
Both dance veterans, the girls attended the dance, their third such dance, in style.
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