The new school year brings an addition of a spirit week dance to Westford Academy.  The upperclassman dance will be held from 9-11 pm on October 20th, the night of the Friday of Spirit Week, following the traditional football game.

WA’s student council and the dance committee are planning the dance. The dance committee members, Allie Bohenko, Hannah Roche, Grace Dillon, Jamie Cheng, Sophie Jiang, and Steven MacMaster began by sending out a survey to the student body to find out if people were interested in having school dances.

“The responses were mostly positive and a lot of students wanted a hoco [homecoming] so we decided to try it out this year and see how things go,” said sophomore Jamie Cheng, a member of student council.

Although homecoming is typically open to all grades at other schools, at WA, this dance is a Spirit Week Dance, and only upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) are permitted to buy tickets. However, they are allowed to invite anyone, including underclassmen or students from other schools, given that the WA upperclassman buys the ticket.

“Anyone in WA can attend, as long as they are juniors or seniors. Upperclassmen can bring underclassmen and/or guests outside the school.” said Bohenko.

Student Council advisor Jennifer Ganley and the representatives opted to make the dance open only to upperclassmen.

“STUCO [Student Counci] decided to have this dance be just for upperclassmen because the freshmen and sophomores will have another snowball this year” said Ganley.

The dance is also restricted from the lower grades because it will be held in the cafeteria and the maximum capacity for the cafeteria cannot accommodate the entire student body.  The student council is also looking towards bringing back throwback teen centers, depending on the success of the new dance.

Earlier this year, upperclassmen were sent a poll by the student council representatives via the Facebook group regarding the theme of the dance. The majority voted for the dress code to be Halloween-themed instead of a semi-formal option.

“The football game will also have the same theme so that upperclassmen can just head to the dance right afterward,” said Ganley, regarding the dress code.

Students are also reminded that the WA dress code will apply, so no masks will be allowed inside. The tickets will cost $7 to $8 for just the dance. However, tickets combined for both the dance and game are $10.

The dance was made in hopes to add to the list of yearly events.

“We really just want to start a tradition here at WA,” said Bohenko.