Gummy Ochoa (GVMMY) knew just what to play. Taylor Swift thundered into the crowd as the disco lights ignited the Craft Theater in red, blue and green. Soon, all Thomas Reed could hear were people — dressed up as characters from Batman to Oppenheimer — shouting the lyrics to “Love Story.”
It was truly something to experience for Reed. Even though it was his senior year at Community High School, Reed had never gotten the chance to attend the Halloween Dance until the night of Oct. 27. Spiderwebs, pumpkins and spooky animatronics adorned the hallways all made an appearance, along with hundreds of costumes.
The night provided fun for everyone, even those not into dancing: in the library, students could watch “A Nightmare Before Christmas”; students could play board and card games; across the school, students could play or watch a Mario Kart Tournament; and cider and donuts could be exchanged in the hallway.
But just before the doors opened, the school Wi-Fi went out and GVMMY, had no way to play his music. With the official start time bearing down, it was all hands on deck to get the Wi-Fi back and his playlist playable.
“That was definitely a scary moment for me because I didn’t know what was gonna happen,” GVMMY said.
But with the help of Dean Marci, GVMMY was able to get his set ready and students came for the return of the Halloween Dance. GVMMY DJed all night with the help of his father. After years of experience being a DJ — from weddings to other school events — he knew what to do. Reading the room is one of the most important things to GVMMY when DJing. He played a mix of songs, some that many would know, like “Love Story,” by Taylor Swift to songs that he simply wanted to see if the crowd would vibe with, like “La Mamá de la Mamá” by El Alfa.
“I played the entire song and people were vibing out the entire time,” GVMMY said. “Even if they didn’t know the lyrics because they were in Spanish, it was just great.”
Dressed as a vampire, Guikema moved through the dark, loud disco of the Craft Theater to the excitement on the other side of the school where students battled it out in Mario Kart. He enjoyed the spread of rooms at the dance, feeling it gave more freedom than at another dance like prom. Sophomore Alex Schwartz also enjoyed the night’s activities, from getting hyped over the Mario Kart Tournament to getting to see movies that were shown.
“This dance only having CHS students really made it more fun because I knew the people and the school better,” Schwartz said.
Ryan Silvester, Forum Council advisor, wouldn’t have changed anything from the night. Silvester feels high school dances are typically common across high schools in the U.S.: a big room, lots of students and loud music.
“I remember being like, ‘Yeah, this is fun. This is exciting,’” Silvester said. “But if you didn’t love dancing, if you didn’t want to be in the mix of it all, there wasn’t really that much to do.”
Silvester wanted to change it up. With the addition of extra rooms, Forum Council completed two goals with one idea. Silvester saw all the rooms filled and people enjoying dancing, watching movies, doing crafts and eating food.
“We focused on really making the dance more of an extravaganza than just the dance,” Silvester said. “I think you can say what you will about dances but they’re a fun way to get to know classmates to get to know each other outside of the normal school environments. A ton of kids took it up so I was really glad to see that.”
