Courtesy of the BSM Student Council Instagram

BSM students attended this year’s winter formal, which took place at the Metropolitan Ballroom.

This year, Benilde-St. Margaret’s held their first ever Valentine-themed winter formal: A Knight With Sweethearts. Although this theme was cute, urging students to wear red, pink, and white, it was controversial among the student body. While some students loved dressing up for the occasion, others felt it was unnecessary to change the tradition of a holiday theme.

In previous years, the winter formal was a fun winter theme. For example, at last year’s winter dance, Tropical Christmas, there were fun colors and there was not a specific dress code. But this year, the usual winter theme was changed to a Valentine’s Day theme. Sophomore Arwen Patell believes that the change in tradition has caused an upset among students. “I think some people might be a little annoyed, or slightly disappointed that it’s not a holiday ball theme… Obviously, that’s been the tradition, and changing tradition doesn’t always resonate well with people,” Patell said.

Due to the Valentine’s Day theme, some students who did not have dates to bring to the dance did not attend in fear of feeling left out. This was the reason Patell did not attend the dance. Unable to attend the dance last year, she was excited to attend this year’s dance until the theme was announced. All of Patell’s friends had dates to the dance, and since she did not, she felt uncomfortable attending. “Personally, I think it’s kind of dumb to go to a Valentine’s Day dance and not have a date. That’s why I’m not going,” Patell said.

Some students attended the dance regardless of whether they had a date or not. Senior Andee Sellers, attended the winter formal for a completely different reason. She wants to make the most out of the time she has left with the BSM community. “Because this is my last chance as a senior, I want to do as many of these activities as I can before I graduate,” Sellers said.

However, despite attending the dance, Sellers disliked the new theme. Regardless, that did not stop her from attending. Patell believes that the previous winter theme provided students with a larger variety of clothes to choose from and that this may have been a leading cause of students not wanting to attend the Valentine’s Day-themed dance this year. “A winter theme [last year] is easier to dress up for. I feel that it’s easier to represent winter in an outfit than it is to represent Valentine’s Day without it seeming similar with everyone wearing red, pink, and white… I also think it looks better,” Patell said.