Homecoming assembly dances at Goffstown High School occur every year during the first semester. The assembly occurs during the last block of the Friday of Homecoming Week. This year’s Homecoming happened on the 12th of October. Every year, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors choreograph dances. They perform in the high school’s gym and get scored on how well they performed.

This year, class of 2019 – seniors – landed first place in the competition for the best Homecoming assembly dance. Beatrice Cascio, an exchange student from Italy, who partook in the senior dance, she recalls, “It was fun, it allowed me to meet new people. I’m only here for a small amount of time and I wanted to bond and make new friendships.” She anticipated their most problematic competitors were going to be the juniors, but the instant she saw the junior dance, she knew that the seniors would have no obstacles in winning.

Another senior dance participant, J Silvestre, when questioned if he thought the seniors would win he insists “Yes, without a doubt.” Seniors did hit the mark for first place, and they did train and polish their dance. Seniors “met after football practices, six o’clock to eight o’clock…. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays” J notes. When asked if it was hard to balance football and the dance practices, he stated that it was somewhat hard, coming from football practice made him tired before he even began dancing. He takes dancing seriously. He started to participate in the dances freshmen or sophomore year because his brother revealed to him to do everything.

Senior practices occurred in the cafeteria, gymnasium, library, and theater lobbies. Sophomore dances transpired in the library, gymnasium, and the theater lobby. Mr. Pyszka and Ms. Mazzoni were present for sophomores practices, and they did review the dances and tell the dancers what was acceptable and what was not. Beatrice states there were at least 60 people who presented themselves for practices. J explains that prior to practice, there were groups of people hanging out until the student directors exclaimed it was time to begin.

Sophomore Kyla Connors was in her class dance of 28 people. She explained that “sophomores met Monday through Wednesday, six to eight o’clock.” She concluded that seniors would be the hardest to overcome, and freshmen would be the easiest to trample. Both J and Beatrice, seniors, hypothesized that the freshmen would be easy to beat, too. Kyla puts it simply why the freshmen are easiest to beat; they haven’t had other practice and this is their first time. Both the sophomore and senior dances did not differ much in terms of steps and music, but they did incorporate more to their earlier dances.

Both the class dance members mention that the creators of the senior and sophomore dances listened to the reaction of the dancers. J acknowledges that the combination of the men that were teaching the dance was amazing. “The funniness… [and] the coolness… [and] the intellect… of Justin Scott Kaminski and Griffin Hansen were amazing… they were the perfect mix.” Kyla argues that the sophomore dance teacher, were good too, they listened to all of the people’s responses to the dances. Beatrice concludes that the seniors all bonded and created new friendships.