“School’s more fun when you go to stuff! Go to the dance!” David Choate, Student Council (STUCO) sponsor said. LHS’s annual Turnabout dance is just around the corner,  Feb. 22, 2014. Tickets are $10 sold this week at lunch.

The concept behind this dance is based off the 1934 comic strip, Li’l Abner. The comic featured a character Sadie Hawkins and in the strip, Sadie Hawkins Day called for the unmarried women of the town to chase the bachelors and wed the ones they caught. In 1938, the first where the girl asked the guy to the dance was introduced and called the Sadie Hawkins dance. The term evolved to Turnabout in the suburbs of Chicago.

Although it’s tradition for girls to ask guys to the Turnabout dance, it’s not required. Many students simply go with a friend or in friend groups. This year, juniors girls Haley Hubbard, Rachael Krajewski and Alaina Strollo have grouped up with senior boys Noah Hendel, Andrew Underwood and Matt Underwood. The girls knew the guys wanted to attend Turnabout because it is their senior year, so the girls originally planned to pair up and attend the dance as individual dates. After they began planning, they decided to just take them all and go as a group.

“I’m really excited I don’t have the pressure of a date and it’s just a group of great people instead,” Strollo said. The group wants their experience to be a fun night out with friends and experience Turnabout as the relaxed school dance that it is.

This year’s theme will be Gatsby. There has been concern and confusion about the theme because Marquette High School used it in their first ever Turnabout dance on Feb. 8, 2014. Choate says there’s no need to worry.

“We had this idea like a month ago. We didn’t copy anyone. It’s a very popular theme,” Choate said.

STUCO plans to have an amazing, all-out Gatsby theme. The STUCO executive board will be hand-making all of the decorations for the 1920’s dance.

MHS did have a successful first Turnabout. The idea was brought about by MHS Seniors Sydney Vaughn & Alec Lage who use LHS to promote their argument. Overall, their dance raised about $3,700. Rockwood Summit and Eureka no longer have Turnabout dances. RSHS sponsors a “Winter Dance,” and EHS sponsors a “Glow Dance Mixer.”