Many students of Manhattan High School spent last Saturday night at the Kansas State Alumni center for the annual Subdeb dance. at Subdeb at the Kansas State Alumni center. The Alumni center had been transformed by the all female Subdeb committee to mirror a Masquerade.

Subdeb, short for Suburban Debutante, is a dance that goes by many names in different high schools, and is more commonly referred to as a “Sadie Hawkins” or girls ask guys dance.

While the dance is not affiliated with Manhattan High, it is a dance that many of the students of MHS attend and it is one dance that never disappoints.

One of the reasons Subdeb has been successful for many years is because the dance is not put on by the school, but rather by students.

They base the entire night around a single theme. This year was “Masquerade” which meant that the tickets, shirts and decorations were created to replicate a Masquerade ball.

“A lot of us looked at Pinterest and just looked at good ideas,” junior Kamryn Bussmann said. “That helped with our creation of table pieces and balloon arches.”

They began selling tickets a week prior to the dance with all of the profits going to different charities, such as Katie’s Way.

The girls got up early Saturday morning and began preparation at the venue. They put up balloons, hung banners and assembled the dance floor.

Setting up for the dance often makes a difference in the way the committee views the event. They spend a good portion of their day doing things related to the dance, and while that might be exhausting they are just as excited, if not more so, than the average student about the night.

“[Setting up] makes it more exciting because you’re putting so much work into something that people have so much fun at,” Bussmann said.

While the Subdeb committee has to spend their weeks leading up to Subdeb preparing for the dance the other students of MHS had some preparing to do as well. The first step many students took was finding and asking a date. With the dance being the opposite of a traditional dance many girls began coming up with clever ways to ask the student they desired. Signs were made and props were bought in attempt for students to get a date.

Once students who desired had a date they began looking for attire to wear. They then simply had to wait for the day itself to come.  

The dance began at 9 p.m. and continued on until midnight, with many students enjoying the unique atmosphere that Subdeb had to offer.

According to students, one major downside to the dance was the temperature. With so many students in attendance the dance floor gets hot quickly. With the extreme heat many students brought extra hair ties to pull their hair up when it got too hot and made frequent trips to the water station that the parents had kindly set up.

The heat of the night did not, however, deter any students from dancing. Many students listed dancing and what went with it as their favorite part of the night. As many students know great dancing is often accompanied by popular music. Prior to the dance the Subdeb committee put together a playlist that could be used by the DJ to make the night more enjoyable for every student.

“The music was really good they had a good playlists,” junior Madeline Crocker said. “It was just fun because everyone knew the songs.”

With the good music blaring, many students spent the entirety of their night on the dance floor having a good time.

This year the committee and the students of Manhattan High worked hard together to make Subdeb, yet again, another successful event. The dancing, the music and the asks are all a part of what makes Subdeb unique and fun for so many students.

“It was fun,” Crocker said. “Because it’s different than how it usually is.”