Following low ticket sales, the Student Council (StuCo) canceled its Turnabout dance, Tali Gankin, Senior Class Vice President, said.

StuCo needed 500 ticket sales by Monday, Feb. 5, but less than 60 students bought tickets, Gankin said. It did not make sense financially to host the dance because of ticket sales, were needed to pay vendors such as a DJ and food, Kwon said.

“[StuCo] had to hire a pricey DJ and have expensive decorations,” Kwon said “There were a lot of the funds that went into creating the dance, so we had to accept that we would not be able to [make a profit] and actively lose thousands of dollars.”

It is important to make a profit on these dances in order for StuCo to host other fun events during the school year, such as spirit weeks and assemblies, Kwon said.

Stuco wanted to raise morale in the lull between winter break and spring break, Gankin said. A dance was the perfect event to bring excitement into the school environment, she added.

“We wanted to make sure there was something to cheer the student body up and bring excitement to the school and the students,” Gankin said.

While there have been previous dances in the spring, such as Spring Fling, which was hosted in April of last year, Turnabout was going to be different, Gankin said. The new dance was supposed to  turnabout style, meaning girls ask boys to be their date, however in an email to the student body, the StuCo described this dance as “Turnabout 2.0”.

“Unlike the traditional Turnabout Dances of the past where the girl asks the boy, the Turnabout 2.0 is for everyone! Go with a friend group, go alone, go as a couple, go with anybody. Just go!” the email read.

Low interest in spring dances is not something new, but something the school has been experiencing since the COVID-19 pandemic, Kwon said.

The low interest in the dance was not foreseen, Gankin said. A survey was sent to students in December to gauge their interest in a new spring dance, and more than half of students said they would want a turnabout dance, Gankin said.

Overall, Gankin feels that the lack of interest in the dance shines a bright light on a much broader problem: a lack of school spirit at South.

“We as StuCo want to improve school spirit and encourage students to be involved [at South],” Gankin said. “[We want] to make sure that the following classes are excited and able to have more dances [other] than just homecoming.

StuCo is very upset that the dance is not happening this year, and they hope that the students who did want to attend the dance will have the chance to go in the future, Gankin said.

“I feel really bad for people that were genuinely interested in coming to the turnabout,” Gankin said.  “We were looking forward to having a fun dance in February.”