“The Snowflake Dance has been canceled,” rang over the loudspeakers at the end of the day on Jan. 18. The dance, which was supposed to take place on Jan.19, was canceled because of low ticket sales. This fact was made obvious by the lack of disappointed groans I heard when the announcement was made. Low attendance at and the cancellation of student dances has become a trend in the past few years.

In 2010, the planned Sadie Hawkins winter formal was postponed and then canceled after low ticket sales. In 2011, another Sadie Hawkins winter formal was canceled because not enough tickets were purchased to make it a worthwhile fundraiser.

In Feb. 2012, the Glow Dance took place and was an overall success if only for the fact that it wasn’t canceled. It was a winter dance, but it had a casual feel. “I think it was pretty good, like the back to school dance,” senior Allison Sanphillipo said.

The Snowflake Dance was supposed to be more casual. However, this fact was not made clear at first and it had to be clarified on a Facebook event page that had been created for the dance.  “I didn’t think it was formal, but I think at one point some people thought it was, which deterred them from buying tickets,” Sanphillipo said.

Senior Morgan Jones did not buy tickets to the dance and according to her, she wasn’t planning on it. “Not enough of my friends were going to make me want to. Plus the [disc jockeys] are always bad,” Jones said.

“I don’t think the dance was planned well enough. At first it was formal. Then it changed to casual. Still, there was nothing that made it especially appealing. I think that many of the seniors’ ideas for fundraising were shot down so the Snowflake Dance was a rushed attempt to get some money,” Jones said.

Senior Class Moderator Larry Hensley was involved in the planning of the Snowflake Dance. According to Hensley, only 23 tickets were sold. “More than 23 tickets needed to be sold for the dance to go on,” Hensley said.  The money raised from the dance would have gone towards Prom.

Although the cancellation of the dance was a setback for Prom fundraising, the senior class leaders have not given up, according to Hensley. “The senior class leaders are in session now to discuss and brainstorm other fundraising opportunities,” he said.

In Hensley’s opinion, dances in general have lost their popularity. “Students have better things to do and dances are not cool anymore. It’s sad,” Hensley said.