A night in New Orleans for BYU students

BYUSA hosted a winter dance with the theme “Night in New Orleans” in a ballroom decked with yellow, purple and green balloons and lights on March 15.

The motto for the night was “Laissez les bons temps roulez,” which literally means, “Let the good times roll.” Students enjoyed dancing, food, face painting and a photo booth in the Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom. BYUSA planned for 1,500 students to attend.

The Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog” was a major part of the inspiration for the dance, as was the season of Mardi Gras.

“We wanted to go around the Mardi Gras celebration but keep it BYU appropriate,” said Micah Jones, a BYUSA dance planner. “We didn’t encourage costumes but for students for wear purple, gold and green.”

A plush frog seen from advertisements was handed out at the end of the night as a prize. Hershey’s chocolates were also bestowed as “kisses from the frog” to students.

“I went with some of my friends, and I’ve never been to a BYU dance before,” said Maddy French, a freshman from California. “We took a lot of photos together before anything else.”

Usually BYUSA hosts a winter preference dance for girls to ask boys. However, because of recent changes with enrollment of students and their ages, a New Orleans night seemed appropriate.

“Generally we host a winter preference, but because of the age change (for missionaries) we decided to do a different theme,” Jones said. “We wanted a really fun dance, since it’s always a tradition.”

BYUSA encourages students to get involved in events such as the winter dance so they can see the joy in serving.