If you haven’t heard, Barrington High School is hosting their Sadie Hawkins-style winter dance within the next two weeks. The Turnabout dance has been a BHS winter staple for at least a decade now. The flyers are being put up this week and their instagram account @turnabout2020 has already started advertising and sharing information to the student body.

The theme of this year’s Turnabout dance, run by the Barrington Area Community Foundation Youth Advisory Council is “Roaring 20’s in the 20’s.” The dance will be from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm on February 8th in the cafeteria. Tickets are being sold during lunch hours the week of the dance for ten dollars a piece, or fifteen dollars at the door.

It’s not uncommon for most Barrington students to be unaware of the Turnabout dance. Unfortunately, the stereotype is that turnabout is “only for couples,” but this is something that will hopefully change this year.
“We have a lot of new faces on our council with great ideas which has helped a lot,” said council member Kelly Wolff, “We have received a lot of sponsorships this year which will help us out a lot with decorations, music, advertising, etc. So we think we can get a lot more people to attend.”

In previous years, the head count on the dance has been small, with numbers of students between 30 and 60. Typically, when students hear Turnabout they think they need a date. However, the Barrington Advisory Council is strongly advertising this as a group, date, or individual dance.
“We think the reason not many students is because the word never gets around,” said Wolff, “and people might feel as if they are pressured that they have to be asked or need to ask someone to go.”
Another incentive to attend the dance is a $50 starbucks gift card for the most liked Turnabout ask.

When conducting data from the student body and the foundation running turnabout, there were lots of mixed reviews on why students don’t attend. Lots of students ask their dates to the dance, take pictures, dress up, but then go somewhere else because most students seem to enjoy the actual dance part.
“Students should come to turnabout because it’s a super fun dance and the music is super good!” said Wolff.