By Brenda Martinez '21
On October 18 the junior class hosted the first dance of the school year, Mission Nights. The Ring Dance has been a longstanding tradition at ICA for many years. Along with the Junior Ring Mass, it signifies the class's transition to upper-class women.
This dance was highly anticipated. It was the first dance organized by the new student leaders and Student Activities Director. The dance committee strove to make an enjoyable dance for all. A team of artists helped to decorate the walls of the auditorium with posters of their own graffiti and created a popular photo booth. They also ensured that the music played at the dance would appeal to those present, so they hired Riordan’s DJ Club, who were able to get many people on the dance floor.
Students felt the dance was a great success. One junior from ICA stated: “I feel that this Ring Dance was way better than past dances. I liked how everything was set up, such as the photo booth and closed cafeteria. They were also a lot more people there in comparison to past dances.”
As the night went on, more people joined in on the dance floor. However, 30 minutes before the dance’s scheduled end, the situation quickly changed. Someone began to pop the balloons that were filled with paint, and it created a huge mess. To top it all off, another person was throwing water across the auditorium. The combination of these actions led to the dance ending early.
This caused a lot of discontent because as junior Maria Arevalo stated, “I was upset about it ending early because they just started to play the music I wanted to hear before it was shut down. Other people I think were also angry because I heard some booing when they turned on the lights and stopped the music.” Many people wanted the dance to continue and were disappointed that it ended early. However, they can look forward to future dances organized by the student body.