CV mixer back – with limits

After a controversy over dirty dancing forced a yearlong hiatus on mixers at Central Valley High School, the popular informal dances are back.

“Our class just pretty much freaked out when we heard we couldn’t have any more mixers,” said senior Lisa Haley.

She attended Friday’s dance with a group of her friends.

“We’re probably not going to be doing too much of the provocative dancing,” she said of students who bought dance tickets, which now come with clearly defined dance rules on the back. A reporter was not allowed into the dance and was told by district officials not to interview students on school property, but Haley said it went well and that students reminded one another to follow the rules.

“It was well worth it,” she said. “We definitely want more mixers. We don’t want to have to pay a lot of money to get our dance on.”

It was a year ago today that 70 students were removed from the last mixer for freak dancing – the rhythmic fusion of hip-hop beats and sexually explicit dance moves that some parents, students and school administrators said crossed the line of acceptable behavior for school.

The year’s second mixer was canceled because of the dancing. Many students and parents said the decision, and the national media scrutiny that followed, cast an unfair light on the majority of CV dancegoers. They set out to create specific guidelines on what types of dance moves are off-limits.

“It hasn’t been a huge deterrent yet,” said teacher Leanne Donley, the school’s student activities coordinator.

About 500 students had bought tickets as of Friday morning. As many as 700 have attended mixers in the past. Unlike formal dances where much of the focus is on dressing up and partaking in an evening of activities with a date, the mixers are an inexpensive way for many students simply to hang out with their friends have some fun on the dance floor.

“This isn’t bad dancing; it’s just not appropriate here,” Donley said of some of the more risqué dance moves now banned.

She helped a group of 12 students draft the new rules with input from a parents group and many of their peers.

“Just keep your pelvis to yourself,” Donley said.

Students buying tickets, which were only sold in advance, were required to sign a paper stating they understand the new rules. They forbid things like touching sexual body parts, emulating sex acts and “dancing front to back with pelvis touching.”

“We have great kids. We just have some students that make bad choices,” said Principal Mike Hittle.

He said he was impressed by what he describes as a good-faith effort by the students to address the freak dancing issue, and he decided to give the mixers another try.

“We felt that they deserved the opportunity to show us that by all of us working together we could come up with a high-quality solution,” he said.

The rest of the year’s dance schedule is booked, and there aren’t any more mixers in the lineup. But Hittle said if Friday’s dance went well, he’s open to having more.

That’s good news to senior Lindsey Tomlinson and others who worked on the new rules.

“You just go with your friends, have a good time,” she said. “I’m glad that they’re letting us have another chance.”