The traditional Eros dance is rapidly approaching, so Spartans should buy their tickets before they are sold out!
The traditional Sadie Hawkins dance continues at TJ. Artwork by Tori Wallace
Eros has been an ongoing TJ tradition to which many students and staff fondly look forward. Administrative Assistant, Waunetta Vann comments, “The Sadie Hawkins style dance was originally started through a cartoon strip that emphasized the story of a girl named Sadie who chased down boys in the hope of finding a husband.” The dance is focused around the idea of breaking tradition and having girls ask boys out to a dance.
According to Student Council President, Marcus Allen, “The Eros tradition started a long way back, it used to be called the Sadie Hawkins dance and because we need two dances a year, we decided it would be fun to have a dance where the girls ask the boys instead of the boys having all the pressure of having to ask the girls.” The dance is entirely planned out by the student council staff, who help advertise the dance as well as put up decorations.
“Eros has been going since before I went to school here!” says School Treasure, Derek Steffes. When asked where the money from the tickets goes, Steffes jokingly said, “The money from the tickets goes to my dinner fund. Just kidding! The money goes into the student council fund, which we use to pay for the dance and the events at the dance. It helps pay for canned food drives, adopt a family, and we usually try to grant some money to the teachers if they need certain things, so it goes back into the school.”
Like many years before, this year Foreign Language Teacher, Kyler Jackson will be the Eros dance DJ. “We usually try to use Jackson [as the DJ] just because we know who he is, and he knows the kids. It’s like having an extra chaperone!” said Steffes.
Administrator, JoAnne Moreno, comments, “The money from the tickets goes back to student council; part of it pays for the DJ, security and the decorations and things like that, and then at Christmas time we give money back for the baskets that Mr. Nicolo does and for helping out the school.” Students are encouraged to attend the Eros dance regardless of if they have a date or not. “We want to tell people that we don’t even sell couples tickets; we only sell singles tickets, because we don’t want anybody to feel like if they don’t have a date or don’t have somebody to ask they can’t come,” said Moreno.
Another important part of the Eros tradition is the Eros Royalty. Unlike Homecoming, where only athletes are entitled to win, Eros gives every student an opportunity to be nominated and potentially win a position as an Eros Royalty. “The teachers suggest students from different classes: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and then we put them on a ballot and we let the students vote,” said Moreno.
Tickets for the Eros Dance are on sale as of Monday, January 28 through Friday February 8, for ten dollars each.
