Homecoming is quite the event at WJ. Every year the hallways get more inventive, the video gets a new flavor and we go to the same old dance.

The theme this year, fantasy worlds, was strung about the hall leading up to the gym in posters and props, but never carried into the gym. Dance decorations consisted of  just collecting some highlights from the hallways and slapdashing them together behind the bag check.

 Speaking of the bag check, it serves the purpose of safely storing our items, but creates issues when the students misplace their tickets. Using a student’s Student ID number, like for the entrance ticket and practically everything else at school, is an alternative that may provide a better bag check experience. The gym, year after year, has the same “school dance” atmosphere. The floor is covered in green plastic and duct tape, familiar strobe lights stream from the DJ booth, and popular tunes blare from speakers.

Most people reacted to familiar throw backs such as “Party Rock Anthem” or “Cupid’s Shuffle” with groans, only half of the guests dancing in a tight mass at the front of the gym while the rest bounced on their toes in scattered groups off to either side. Junior Noam Yanay liked the music, as well as the light atmosphere.

“So far I’ve been to Homecoming all my years at WJ, this year was definitely the best for me. I really enjoyed all the throwback music they played,” Yanay said.

   There’s a certain appeal to knowing you’ll be able to rock out to your favorite classics at any school dance. Senior Amina Benkreira noted the struggles that Leadership has had with finding music for school events.

 “The music was way better than last year but a lot of people didn’t like it… we’d hunted down a DJ who’d been given good reviews by teenagers,” Benkreira said.

It could be the issue that in trying to remain objective and provide music that the majority of students would enjoy, the DJ sacrificed the personal touch of more current, less mainstream music. It’d be unfair to leave out that some new favorites were also played, featuring Cardi B and 21 Savage, which the audience certainly appreciated, made obvious by the instant mosh pit they created.

The Photobooth was an entertaining addition, complete with green and white accessories and speech bubble props. The flash went off a little after the countdown which made the photos more candid, students certainly had fun with it. The photo printer provided some problems but all photos that were unable to print at the dance are available for pick up. All in all, there’s little more to be expected from Homecoming. It doesn’t have the same significance, funding or the attention to detail as Prom does. It seems that we could go farther, turn it into either a more casual hang out or a bigger deal than it is currently, but it’s residing in this middle ground of school dance purgatory where it doesn’t really belong. It’s a dance, where you can hang out with friends and get dressed up for a good time, we shouldn’t be dissing that.

“Everyone was genuinely having fun, there wasn’t too much drama,” Yanay said. Dance goers with open attitudes had no problem getting down.