Wheelwright Whiteout

As the clock struck 8:30 at night on Saturday, Mar. 27, residents of Wheelwright Hall ran through campus, wearing all white clothing and face paint. As they ran, they chanted and cheered at the top of their lungs telling all students to go to the first dance of spring term: Wheelwright Whiteout. Meanwhile, people were crowding into Grainger, where they were greeted by strobe lights, glow sticks and upbeat dance music.

“We are so excited that so many people came to the dance and seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.”

In preparation for the dance, the girls of Wheelwright publicized the event to their friends and peers through social media and filmed a special advertising video for the event. Carrying on the tradition of a whiteout dance theme passed down by the Wheelwright alumnae, residents from every grade in the dorm played a role, as they consider it their responsibility to hype up the community for the dance as much as years past. “We thought that the seniors last year created a bunch of hype around the event and we wanted to replicate that,” lower Alexandra Van Dijkum said. “Everybody in the dorm helps to host the event, whether it’s helping clean up or set up.”“Wheelwright Whiteout is really an entire dorm production,” upper Alexis Gorfine said. This is her second year contributing to Wheelwright Whiteout. She also praised their dorm proctors for their hard work. “Our amazing proctors probably did the most work. They made the t-shirts that the Wheelwright girls wear at the dances, and they planned everything,” she said. Lower Gabrielle Allen echoed with Gorfine and expressed how much she appreciated that the Senior proctors took time out of their busy schedules to design t-shirts. “They appeared to do so with ease, providing each girl in the dorm with her very own Wheelwright Whiteout 2017 t-shirt,” Allen said.The preparation and production of Wheelwright Whiteout was also a precious bonding experience for the dorm. Before the event started, the girls got ready together in the common room, applying glow-in-the-dark face paint, dancing and taking pictures with each. “The ‘chores’ in preparation for the dance are actually one of the best parts for us because we get to come together as a dorm and have a mini dance session with just Wheelies,” Upper Jane Li said.Wheelwright Whiteout is one of the most popular dances of the year. This year, the dance occurred earlier in spring term than in past years. For students, it was a fun start to the final term of the school year. For students who have either never attended Wheelwright Whiteout or are new to the school this year, this was their first time to attend the event. New lower Lulu Ezekwenna considered the event her top three favorite Exeter dances so far. “For me, the dances are as good as the music,” she said. Post-graduate Sara Hosman agreed that the music quality factored into the success of the dance. “I expected to dance a lot with my friends and have a really fun time, listen to some good music and just take a break from stress,” she said. She thought that the dance lived up to her expectations, as she relaxed and enjoyed herself in the care-free environment.For returning students, they consider this year’s Wheelwright Whiteout similar to most of the other dances, so they didn’t expect anything different going on. Upper Silas Lane, who attended the entirety of the dance, said, “The DJ played a mix of songs you’d expect to hear at a dance.”  Though he had a lot of fun, he described the dance as generic. Prep Matthew Wabunoha had a similar experience. He said the dance didn’t exceed expectation, and he also said, “This dance definitely lacked good music for most of it, although the white and neon theme was fine.” The DJ selected popular hits tailored to high school students and took song suggestions from the crowd, but students inevitably had a multitude of different preferences and opinions about the music played.Despite the mixed reactions, the girls in Wheelwright put their best efforts toward the dance, sharing fun memories and building teamwork along the way.  “We are so excited that so many people came to the dance and seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.” Gorfine said.