Providence Academy juniors and seniors donned their most elegant attire Saturday evening for a night Under the Stars but above the city, dancing the night away in the IDS center in downtown Minneapolis.
Located on top floor of the IDS center–the state’s tallest building–the venue for this year’s event went hand and hand with the theme “Under the Stars.” The windows allowed a bird’s eye view of the city at sunset and a closer look at the stars in the evening sky.
There were a number of activities to keep students and their guests entertained for the entirety of the night. To start off the event, everyone gathered around the piano and sang a rendition of “Piano Man” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” played by Cort Dingman ‘20 and Owen Carter ‘20. Students also enjoyed a photobooth, and a filling dinner of steak, salad, pasta, and salmon before heading to the dance floor. For the first time in PA prom history, the cost of prom tickets included dinner, saving students the stress and additional planning of making reservations.
A lot of people would agree that this year’s prom was a step up from 2018. Dylan Servias ‘19 noted, “the venue this year was so much better than last year.” Jacob Halek ‘20 agreed, adding, “it was perfect because it was able to hold all the students without it being too big or too small”.
Olivia Klassen ‘20, member of the Prom Planning committee, shared some of the behind the scenes work that helped make the festivities go smoothly, “Mrs. Gregg recommended the building, so we made a site visit and decided to give it a go; we’re so glad we did!” As far as decorations, Klassen commented, “we wanted to keep it simple and classy, to stick with our theme. The view really did most of the work for us, but we could certainly have had better communication in the planning process.”
Nonetheless, it is fair to say that Prom 2019 was a hit. Upper school literature teacher Ms. Uppgaard noted, “It was a very fun night! I never went to prom as as high schooler and it was awesome to see all my students having fun, being themselves outside the PA walls”.
From Disney’s Moana, Abba’s “Mamma Mia,” Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls”, to the songs destined to get everyone moving, like Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA,” the neon lights flashed over students’ new and old dance moves and even a conga line. The dancing and singing left bodies bruised and voices sore the next day, but all agree it was well worth the ache.