Dancing Days Finally Come to School

WELEETKA, Okla. —  Through 14 presidents, there was absolutely no fox trotting or twisting at Graham High School, and no disco or moonwalking.

Generation after generation had mistakenly believed the deed for the land on which the school stands contained a ban on dancing. No one really knew for sure why dancing was banned, but no one seemed to question it.

Until this year. A group of juniors petitioned for a prom, faculty and local clergy approved, and Graham Supt. Dusty Chancey even located the original deed--there was no ban after all.

For the first time in its 85-year history, tiny Graham High dressed itself for a dance Friday, with more than 100 yards of gossamer, 100 spray-painted stars and 20 strips of lights dangling over the basketball court.

“I’m about as excited as the kids,” said Debbie Puckett, a member of the Class of 1971 and mother of Melissa, a 17-year-old student at Graham. “I’m finally getting my prom.”

After group pictures were taken in the barn-shaped gym, the lights suddenly went off about 8 p.m. Friday. The students hurried to the floor’s edge.

Strobe lights started as parents and faculty cheered.

“We begin a new millennium and a new tradition!” the disc jockey yelled.

And with that, the first song began--”Footloose,” from the 1984 movie about teenagers rebelling against a small town’s ban on dancing.

One couple headed to the middle of the floor and started to swing. Others watched.

Slowly, they walked onto the floor, a few barefoot girls at a time. A couple guys sliding across the floor. Other couples began to bounce--soon it was a dance.

Students had taken dance lessons, traveled miles to the nearest town for flowers and made sure the pickup trucks were shiny as Graham ended the ban.

Just like any prom, there were still the occasional mishaps: Melissa’s date showing up late. The stiffness of new shoes. Trying to put on jewelry with new long fingernails. And the frustrations of a bad hair day.

The school serves a rural area of scattered homes and sits alone next to a cornfield about an hour outside Tulsa. It’s 10 minutes on a curvy road to the nearest town, Weleetka.

Graham is known for its basketball, 4-H and Future Homemakers of America, said Principal Alfred Gaches, who also teaches history and coaches girls’ basketball.

About 10 years ago, some parents rented a room at a hotel in another town and had a small gathering with dancing. But it wasn’t a prom for the whole school. Last year, students held a bonfire party in its place, but there was no dancing.

On Thursday, students practiced dance steps in the gym with a volunteer instructor. Clumping around in tennis shoes and boots, the two-stepping teenagers giggled as they took one step forward, one step back.

All but one of Graham’s 25 juniors and seniors signed up for the dance.