As the temperature dropped even lower, excitement for the Upper School winter dance rose. Known as the Valentine’s dance in previous years, a new venue and an earlier date have reshaped the dance into its current form.

Student Activities Committee Co-Presidents seniors Ned Laird-Raylor and Turab Naqvi explained the reasoning behind the changes.

“Last year, we settled on the Midpointe Event Center and that worked well, but what didn’t was how hot it was and the non-dance oriented activities,” Laird-Raylor said.

This year, the dance was held at the Walker Art Center. Due to the numerous weddings that occur on Valentine’s Day, the dance was held on Jan. 27th. As such, it was more of a winter wonderland dance than a Valentine’s dance.

The  Walker provided a better place for students to dance at, including better heating and general atmosphere.

“The new venue has the aesthetic that we want and it caters toward everything that we’ve lacked in past years,” Naqvi said.

SAC tried to cater towards students who preferred not dancing too. “I know some people can feel uncomfortable about it. We really wanted to make sure there were things to do that were not isolating when you weren’t dancing,” Laird-Raylor said.

In the end, students greatly enjoyed the abundance of catered food and the better temperature regulation. The Minneapolis Skyline views and the Walker’s modern atmosphere were a unique added bonus.

This story is reprinted from The Rubicon print edition: Feb. 2, 2018.