Spring Formal Cancelled ‘Spring Fo 2.0’ Set for April 22

By PHIN GIBBS and FORREST ZENG

On Saturday, March 25, Exeter hosted Spring Formal, the first formal dance held since before the pandemic. The event was hosted on the upper floor of the Field House. Concessions, including apple cider and desserts, were held in the Hahn Room. There was loud music and a mosh pit in the Wrestling Room. 

After 30 minutes, students reported that the floor began shaking. The event was shut down for concerns of structural integrity. In the weeks following the event, former Student Council President Ale Murat released a statement, formally addressing the incident. She apologized for the cancellation of the dance and promised a second formal dance before the school year ended. The second dance, titled “Spring Formal 2.0” is set for Saturday, April 22. It will take place from 8:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. in Thompson Gym. 

The event preceded much anticipation. Prep Olivia Pierre said, “I was pretty excited. I was planning on going with some of my friends and I was excited to finally have something just to have an excuse to dress up.”

“Everyone was having a good time,” prep Anna Taormina said. “Seeing everybody dressed up was really fun.”

The dress of the dance was formal. Some students found the theme conflicting with the music. “I felt like the choice of EDM wasn’t quite fitting with everyone wearing formal clothes,” lower Niko Todorov said. 

A few minutes after the dance started, the ground began to pulsate noticeably. The shaking was most pronounced within the Wrestling Room and could be sensed within the Hahn Room.

“The floor started wobbling,” Olasore said. “I was like, ‘these people are crazy.’ I thought they were making the floor wobble by bouncing too hard.” The shaking originated from students in one singular spot, concentrating the pressure on a small area of the floor.

“It was the unison of the jumping. They were all jumping on beat and it was not good,” Olasore added.

Students described the dense crowd of dancing students as a mosh pit. “After the mosh pit started the room began shaking. It was terrifying,” Taormina said.

Prep Samuel Scheffler outlined his experience at the dance up until it was shut down. “When I entered the Wrestling Room, I noticed the shaking immediately and was concerned about structural damage. I also noticed a safety officer and manager surveying the room. The safety officer thought the vibrating was from the bass in the music. After I moved around, I noticed that some parts of the room were moving more than others, and I concluded that the floor was shaking because of all the people dancing.” 

“It was the unison of the jumping. They were all jumping on beat and it was not good.”

“I had a creeping suspicion that something was going to happen,” prep Janibek Subkhanberdin said. “There was a campus safety car outside, and it was alarming.”

The Wrestling Room is reportedly attached to the roof of the field house, which is in turn attached to a series of beams and pipes which the nets surrounding the tennis courts hang on. When the Wrestling Room began to shake, it likely transferred energy into the surrounding ceiling area, the walls, and the nets. Although the energy was dispersed throughout the large structure, the force was seemingly great enough that it caused significant movement within the field house itself. Scheffler and another student decided to investigate the shaking through the fieldhouse. 

Scheffler continued, “I moved downstairs to the track, and immediately noticed a banging noise from the opposite side of the track. I began walking closer and turned around to see what it was. I observed that the Wrestling Room was shaking severely, as well as the nets and fans of the entire field house. I could hear the sound of people jumping on the Wrestling Room floor.” 

The other noise Scheffler and the other student noticed turned out to be a garage door on the opposite side of the building shaking loudly due to the vibrations. 

“The door was banging at the same time as the shaking of the Wrestling Room. Shortly thereafter, campus safety came and investigated what was going on. Once I reached them, we evacuated the area immediately and the dance was then shortly canceled,” Scheffler said. 

In a statement to parents, Dean of Students Russell Weatherspoon stated, “Ms. McGahie, Assistant Director of Student Activities, quickly conferred with Campus Safety officers and other adults present about their observations. Ms. McGahie ended the dance around 9:15 p.m. and asked the students to leave, which, though disappointed, they did.”

After the decision to end the dance was made, the Wrestling Room was cleared quickly.

Taormina said, “They started flashing the lights on and off, and people were like, ‘are we actually gonna fall through?’ They said that everybody had to exit, and that the floor was going to break and fall. Then they turned on the track lights.”

The track lights turning on was directly followed by the cancellation of the dance. Scheffler reported that he encountered Ms. McGahie as well as a Campus Safety officer entering the fieldhouse to examine the shaking, and that they seemed to have turned on the lights after entering the fieldhouse. 

After leaving the building, Scheffler noticed a second garage door, directly underneath the first garage door and to the right of the field house entrance, vibrating similarly to the one on the opposite side of the building. He observed that the shaking was rhythmic, before ceasing when the dance was shut down. 

Students report mixed emotions about the early ending of the event. Prep Maya Ilangovan noted, “They ended very early, and Saturday check-in was at 11. Nobody really had any plans.”

“I feel like ‘better safe than sorry’ is the right sense. Especially when it’s such a big dance with such a large amount of the student population,” Subkhanberdin said.

Olasore said, “In the moment, I was really annoyed. But after that I calmed down and realized that it was very dangerous. And they should have known beforehand.”

Reportedly, small movements of the Wrestling Room, of lesser scale than that experienced during the dance, are common. 

“Some people have told me that they felt the floor move before,” Olasore said. “I just think that they [the organizers] should’ve known beforehand.”

The choice of the Wrestling Room was unique, particularly considering alternatives to the location such as Thompson or Love Gym. 

Student Council President and Former Co-Secretary upper Kevin Treehan said of the decision, “The Wrestling Room seemed like an ideal location because the Hahn room has the big glass windows. It’s perfect for food and a sort of reception area. The Wrestling Room, we thought, was perfectly set up for lighting and acoustics. We didn’t anticipate it being shut down. It was very necessary because the floor was going up and down.” 

“I feel like ‘better safe than sorry’ is the right sense. Especially when it’s such a big dance with such a large amount of the student population.”

The upcoming Spring Formal 2.0 will be hosted in Thompson Gym, which is likely to support the student population much better. The gym is situated above Downer Fitness Center, which has a multitude of concrete pillars within it.

Treehan said of the planning, “We had a pretty quick turnaround in planning the second dance. Our new Recreation Committee Co-Heads, Gigi and Anna, worked closely with student activities to find the closest possible date to do it. We’ve chosen the Thompson Gym so we won’t face the same issues we did with the Wrestling Room.”

Some students are hesitant to attend the second event. “After it got shut down at one point, I think not a lot of people are going. We were all hyped up and it was so disappointing,” Taormina said. 

Most students, however, are looking forward to the event as a fair replacement for the first short-lived dance. 

“I believe that because the old one was messed up, they’re going to try harder to redeem themselves, so it might be a better than a normal dance,” Olasore said. 

Pierre added, “I think it’s gonna be great.”

The new location, Thompson Gym, provides a slightly larger space. “Thompson is a lot bigger. I’m just looking forward to it because I had a fun time while the first one lasted,” Subkhanberdin said. 

Scheffler gave his thoughts on the Academy’s response to the incident: “I feel that it was an inappropriate and insufficient response and the planning of the event should have been taken more seriously. I’ve lost my trust in the school’s ability to protect my safety as well as the safety of my fellow students.”

“The fact that two ordinary students were able to notice the issue before campus safety was just frankly embarrassing on the part of the school, especially considering their vast campus safety program and the responsibilities it carries,” he added. 

No official comments were offered by the administration on the incident to the students. Proceeding the event, parents were assured via email that the event had been completely safe. When asked, faculty, administration, organizers, and campus safety all declined to comment on the event as a whole.