In the course of preparation for a high school dance grand idealizations start to form about the big night. After months of flipping through the latest issues of Teen Vogue, YM and Cosmo Girl, teenaged girls have romanticized expectations that their dates will be dashing, debonair and chivalrous, just like the handsome male models that grace the glossy magazine pages. Teenaged boys, on the other hand, are just looking to get through the evening and hope to get lucky.

In a segment of Fashion Television fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld stated, “In a formal engagement a man should wear black tie to allow themselves to be the backdrop for women. This allows women to have the freedom to express themselves, display their beauty and shine like a gem.” While teenaged boys may be able to shower, shave, throw on a sport coat and tie and be ready to go within minutes, teenaged girls spend weeks if not months preparing for the big event with extreme precision. The perfect dress, shoes, jewelry, body art, hair, makeup and nail styles are all a must for a high school formal dance. Aside from walking down the aisle on her wedding day, the occasion of a high school dance is a teenaged girl’s opportunity to relish being in the spotlight of attention from her parents and peers as she sets her path toward womanhood.

Once the preliminaries of the event are complete, flowers are exchanged, and photographs are taken, the much-anticipated thrill about the dance may unexpectedly change for the worse depending on the social graces of the teenager’s date and the level of expectation of him/her. Couples who strictly come as friends simply enjoy each other’s company, have a good time among their classmates and leave as friends. Drama and disappointment are often the conclusion for the couples who continually have their differences throughout the evening. For the seriously dating high school couples - the ones that cherish every living moment together - the dance is just another plateau in the relationship.

As soon as the event is in full swing and hundreds of high school couples pack the dance floor, the combined scent of over-applied perfume and cologne, sweat and bare feet intensifies and looms over the dance floor with enormous pungency. After spending lengthy time grinding against their dates to the steady beat of Hip Hop music, boys’ testosterone levels surge, causing a hormonal euphoria that takes over an ability to control the “appropriate” placement of hands. While some girls may reprimand their dates for these advances, others girls unabashedly invite them.

Eventually, at some point during the dance, a number of teenaged boys and girls come face to face with tense relationship circumstances that may affect the rest of the evening, or worse, carry on for weeks after the dance is over. While most teenaged boys try to be gentlemen and show their dates a good time, an unintentional lack of charm and shortage of attentiveness may unwittingly ruin the evening. By failing to compliment his date on her dress or looks, not dancing with her or talking to his friends or other girls most of the night a teenaged boy can easily spoil the date and eliminate any chances of being rewarded for his good behavior. Through this rite of passage, a high school formal dance has become the long-established event that brings about destined moments between teenaged boys and girls. Physical boundaries are challenged, surpassed and unmet. Moments of tension, anxiety and lust are encountered. From this tradition, the path towards adulthood becomes. . . .