Fire and Ice: Winter Formal 2022

On January 18th, 2023, Waukee Northwest students had their Winter Formal dance in Waukee Northwest’s gym.

After a tiring semester, many students looked forward to Winter Formal this year. To many students, this is the first time they’ll be attending Winter Formal due to the restriction of no freshmen. Now that the 9th graders graduated to 10th graders, they’re ready to finally take a step into one of the high school’s dances. On the other side, a lot of seniors are excited for their last Winter Formal at Northwest. Cay Newell, an early graduate from Northwest, said, “I’m excited for the people honestly, seeing everyone dressed their best and dancing is super entertaining and fun! This Winter Formal was really bittersweet for me since I’m a graduate, it was my last Winter Formal.”

One new thing this year is that the dance will be hosted in the gym instead of the cafeteria. Mallory Kell, one of the seniors that helped plan this event, said, “This is the first school dance to be held in the gym, so we are looking forward to that!” The theme for the 2023 Winter Formal was fire and ice, Kell stated, “We came up with the theme of Fire and Ice after brainstorming different winter themes, and we figured that we could do some really cool things with the decorations for this theme!”

Many found the dance a time where they can enjoy themselves and see their friends. A junior, Docken Hass, went with friends. Haas said, “I enjoy generally goofing off and talking and meeting with people I don’t have classes either, so I don’t get to talk to them that much.” Xander Bingaman is another junior who went with some friends. He said, “I actually really enjoyed seeing a lot of my friends in the same place. It was also just a lot of fun in the first place, even though I did get a little hearing damage.”

Another thing students look forward to is finding the right outfit for the event. Greta Paulsen, a sophomore said, “The main thing I look for is definitely how comfortable the dress is. Especially when you’re dancing for a couple of hours, it sucks to have a dress that’s too big, too small, or itches.”

In the end, Winter Formal was a night with friends to enjoy yourself.