Do Students Prefer Bringing a Date or Going Stag at Dances?
- Sophia Kutko '26
- Apr 29
- 2 min read
Updated: May 6
Every time a school dance rolls around, students ask themselves an important question: Should you bring a date?
On one hand, bringing a date allows students to get to know someone new or to have fun with their significant other. In contrast, students attending with friends don’t have to worry about making sure their dates feel welcomed at a Holton event.
If students bring someone they don’t yet know well, there is the added pressure to make a good impression.
Emme Poole ’26 thinks that bringing a date to dances can present challenges because “[if it’s] not someone that spends time with you and your friends... you end up either abandoning your date or your friends.”
Taylor Gaines ’26 agreed and explained that it is easy for dances with dates to become awkward, uncomfortable experiences that can “sometimes cause stress.”
Despite this possibility, many students still opt to attend dances with a partner. The few times Gaines has brought dates, she has enjoyed the opportunity to “meet new people from other schools” that she would not have met otherwise.
Upper School Biology teacher Lisa Craig thinks that “if you are already good friends with your date, you should be able to have a great time at the dance.” If students do not know their dates as well, Craig thinks that students can still have a fun time and suggested finding “safety in
numbers.” She thinks going in groups takes “pressure” off of individual students to entertain their dates and notes that groups should be “not too small but not too large.”
Craig additionally advises students to “[be] a good host to your date” and above all else “don’t dump [the person]!”
At the end of the day, it is up to each students’ personal preference. Poole would rather attend with friends because “all of your friends will be there” anyway, “so why not spend [the time] with them?”
Gaines agreed that dances are more fun with friends because she doesn’t like the “pressure of having to find a date and then drag them to a dance where they don’t know anyone else.”
Poole suggested that a good solution would be to “pick [another] activity that doesn’t require splitting time” for dates “like a concert.” That way, students can have fun dates and spend time at school events with their friends.
