Mateo Acuña
Staff Reporter and Photographer
On Sunday, Oct. 9, the PLU Athletics Department threw a formal as a fundraiser. Tickets were sold from the Athletics website and the event was counterintuitively alluded to as a “sporting event” on PLU’s website, making information about the dance, not to mention the portal for ticket purchasing, difficult to locate. However, the tickets were relatively cheap: $8 presale, $10 general admission.Â
The dance was located in the Anderson University Center CK (Chris Knutzen) room, a large conference space where new freshmen break for lunch during their incoming orientation. Teal, pink and lavender lights had been strung across the room, which was populated with balloons. At the front of the room, near the student entrance, was the DJ’s platform, which was decorated with clusters of large, colorful balloons. Outside in the makeshift lobby, black tables held somewhat trivial refreshments: four water dispensers, three trays of brownies, two bowls of pretzels and two bowls of grapes. Only the brownies proved somewhat popular.Â
At 7 p.m., the official start of the dance, only a fraction of those who would be in attendance were there, leaving the CK Room sparse with students. Two students wearing Red Bull backpacks and casual clothes arrived and started passing out free Red Bulls, which might have undermined the sodas available for purchase. When inquired, they said they were UW students and co-workers with the DJ, a young man with white-dyed hair in a close cut and a red button-up shirt with a white dragon on it.
By 8 p.m., hoards of students had arrived, crowding around the DJ. In the back of the room, which some friend groups and couples preferred, tables with little LED pumpkin candles, fall leaf cutouts and glow bracelets were littered with crushed cans of empty Red Bulls and near-empty water cups.
Fashion-wise, red floor length dresses and platform heels were frequently spotted, as the demographics of the dance were mainly female presenting. Short dresses were more popular than floor-length—though sparkly fabrics and floral prints were seen in each style. Many dresses had an open back, some embellished with crossed fabric straps. Others still opted for a simple spaghetti strap body con dress.
White tennis shoes, Vans and converse were worn across the board, but were most seen in tandem with dress pants and a dress shirt, some buttoned to the top, others showing a bit of skin. On the masculine side, white, black and single-color dress shirts were common, along with black running shoes. In the case of straight-passing couples, dress shirts and blazers often color coordinated with a dress, while queer couples matched aesthetic to a higher degree, though couples were overwhelmingly heterosexual.
Surprisingly, a fair amount of cowboy hats were sported.When asked what inspired the cowboy hats, one of the wearers sagely said, “We just like cowboys, I don’t know.”
Masks were out of fashion, despite rising cases of covid. Only two attendees besides faculty were spotted with a facial covering in a crowd of over 100 students.
By 8:30 p.m., the dance was in full force; one of the cowboys rode on the shoulders of one of his compadres, waving his hat in the air, a conga line had formed and the crowd was shouting along with ABBA’s Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).
In addition to ABBA, the songs that got the crowd going the most were September by Earth, Wind and Fire, a contributor to the 70s cultural renaissance from last year, Romeo and Juliet by Taylor Swift and Crazy by Gnarls Barkley—songs that were a shift from the DJ’s otherwise 2010s-centric party playlist. When the DJ transitioned in the middle of these songs, the energy in the crowd noticeably dimmed, and some of the long transitions as well as song choice brought the energy down.
The dance was a fun escape for many during a stressful part of the semester, and an important fundraiser for the Athletics Department. Hopefully next year tickets and information at the event will be easier to find, there will be a wider variety of snacks, the DJ will play more singable songs and PLU students will continue to turn out in support of Athletics and get to be a “dancing queen” for a night.
