You and your friends step out of the car and into the frigid November air. Goosebumps prickle your arms as you adjust your dress and cross them over your chest to supply warmth to your body. Your eyes sweep over your surroundings to the underwhelming scenery. There you stand, in front of Webster Groves High School and its prison-like exterior. You search for familiar faces, but can’t seem to find any. The buzz of excitement you felt earlier as you were getting ready, going out to eat and taking pictures seems to fade. Stepping into the dark gymnasium, “Starships” by Nicki Minaj blasts through the speakers, and as the night goes on, your ears are repeatedly obliterated with a constant stream of clean yet irritating 2000’s songs. You greet people, but only those from your school, dance with your friends for a while to pass the time and then leave. You get dressed and attend an afterparty that blows the dance out of the water.
Kirkwood and Webster have hosted the annual Turkey Day game since 1938. If you’ve ever talked with someone from either school, you would be informed that Webster and Kirkwood are rivals. You would also be told Kirkwood wins every Turkey Day game. The year the Friendship Dance started, the schools decided that in order to keep a competitive, yet friendly bond between each other, they would hold the annual Friendship Dance together each November. Good thing it is hosted so late into the semester, giving you just enough time for your excitement to burn out. The Friendship Dance is your typical Homecoming dance, only the schools join together and celebrate as one. Since Kirkwood doesn’t get its own dance, that also eliminates the option of a Homecoming football game, because that’s the right way to encourage school pride here at Kirkwood. The location alternates every year between the Kirkwood and Webster gymnasiums. Whichever school doesn’t host the dance hosts the Turkey Day game. This year, Webster is hosting the Friendship Dance for the first time in three years due to COVID-19.
“I think it’s going to be terrible,” Avery Taylor, sophomore, said. I’ve never even been to this school for the dance, [so] I’m a little worried about how [it will] turn out.”
Many students agree with Taylor. There is even a petition circulating Kirkwood students fighting for their own dance back. There is no point in sharing a dance with Webster. There is less space for students, especially because Webster only has one gymnasium. This makes it difficult to move around, and ruins the entire point of a dance. Students often feel crowded and overwhelmed, and will find themselves stepping out into hallways for a breath of fresh air, only to find they are equally full.
One would guess with all these students, bonding with people from the opposite school is inevitable. Wrong. At this dance, the first thing you notice is the lack of connection between the schools. Calling it a rivalry would be an exaggeration; it is merely a disinterest towards the other school and their students. Most people see the dance as an opportunity to celebrate the school year with their peers: the students they share classes with, their lunch group and their friends. So when you’re trying to connect with students from your school, other people become a nuisance. You have to push through countlessWebster kids to find faces you recognize, and once everyone has filed into the gym, the two schools find themselves on opposite sides of the dance floor, with little interaction between them.
“I don’t really converse with Webster people,” Taylor said. “I wouldn’t really know [what they’re] like.
It feels strange to attend a dance that isn’t even focused on your own school. The entire purpose is defeated. We are not united with Webster, and the dance only serves to magnify how separated we are. Sometimes the school administrators forget: we’re not the same school. If we possibly shared more events with Webster, our dance wouldn’t feel as forced, but it feels like it’s been stolen from us. We get one dance a year that incorporates every grade, and we’re supposed to share that with another school? In a tiny gymnasium no less? It feels like we’re the ones doing Webster a favor by showing up to the dull event— almost like charity work, or another chore your parents put on your list, except you don’t get that feeling of helping someone or an allowance in return.
To sum this dance up into two words, it’s a wasted opportunity. None of these issues are truly that infuriating, but it can tend to be bothersome, and the dance just feels like a waste of our time. Kirkwood and Webster could definitely take a step back and reevaluate how they execute the Friendship Dance. Maybe merging the two schools isn’t necessary to keep a healthy bond between the two. The “rivalry” between us is clearly lighthearted and meant to connect the students within each school. Wanting to beat Webster brings Kirkwood students together in a way that nothing else could, and vice versa. When you think about it, how often do you feel any form of rage or anger towards Webster? How often do you really want them to lose? The rivalry is less about hating the other school, and more about uniting our own students and making our school a team. It makes me wonder, is having two separate dances such a horrible thing?
