Willow Glen Resident

Education

A new theme at Willow Glen High: Morp is prom spelled backwards

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Willow Glen High School students tossed tradition to the wind and flipped their winter formal on its head.

This year's dance turned into a casual soiree with jeans and T-shirts instead of gowns and tuxes, and tater tots and Swedish fish replaced strawberries and non-alcoholic daiquiris.

"Students don't have to buy expensive dresses or rent expensive tuxes to go to this dance," says Associated Student Body dance commissioner Jazmin Oseguera. "More people will be able to participate in the dance."

Jazmin picked up on the idea from a California Association Directors of Activity Camp she attended during the summer.

The idea developed into this year's dance theme--MORP, or prom spelled backwards.

Staying true to the dance's backward nature, students in the leadership class spent the two weeks prior to the Dec. 8 dance promoting and advertising the MORP theme with signs all over campus. The signs asked if students knew what MORP was. The students also promoted the dance by reading broadcasting announcements backward over the school's loudspeaker.

The new spin on an old tradition was meant to boost attendance, says Willow Glen High leadership teacher Melissa Foster.

In the '80s, the last dance of the year, the Crystal Ball, was well attended, Foster says. During the '90s, however, attendance dropped and there were many attempts to change the dance's design.

The dance never regained its popularity, Foster noted; the "allure" was lost.

This new, casual approach has been a springboard for change, she says.

"This dance will help students celebrate the beginning of the new year, and the end of the old," Foster says.

Leadership students also used this low-key dance to offer the student population an alternative to the five other formal dances throughout the year.

"We have fancy date dances the rest of the year," Foster says. "The students just wanted to do something different."

The dance was designed to also cost less than a more formal affair, and all the decorations used were recycled from prior events. Students paid $10 in advance or $15 at the door to attend.

"We used stars that were used for the homecoming dance, signs, big flowers, just threw everything out there," Jazmin says.

The dance coordinator also made sure to have balloons and white decorations so the blacklights made everything glow.

"This was the weirdest dance ever," Jazmin says, "but everyone had fun."