The Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center at Brigham Young University was filled with music, dancing and light as guests gathered for the annual Traditions Ball on March 28.
The event was packed with performances and entertainment from 7 to 10 p.m.
It included performances from the BYU Ballroom Dance Company, Living Legends, the fencing and yo-yo clubs and a band made up of BYU alumni called Gralley.
Student Jake Manning planned the behind-the-scenes of this blue-tie event, and he said there was a lot of coordination involved, especially with the entertainment.
In the ballroom of the Hinkley Center, a live jazz band played music for the guests to dance to.
“They come here every year and it’s a whole bunch of old BYU alumni. I think it’s super cool that they come out every year,” Manning said.
This annual event encouraged students, alumni and guests to walk down memory lane during a night out.
Tom and Louanne Hunsaker are both graduates of BYU and love to come to all the events they can. This was their second time attending the Traditions Ball.
“This just reminds us of old times at BYU,” Louanne Hunsaker said.
The couple met while studying at BYU when Tom Hunsaker was assigned to be the home teacher to Louanne’s apartment. He was in his last semester and she had just transferred to BYU from Washington State as a junior.
They said they fell in love and were married in the Los Angeles Temple after they both graduated.
The Hunsakers currently live in Ogden and went to the event with some of their grandchildren and a couple of their daughters.
“We love the band. We love the first-class arrangement. We love the Traditions Ball because everything is done beautifully, and it's a joy to come back and remember BYU,” Tom Hunsaker said.
Current BYU students Jared and Emily Thurman attended the ball for the first time as seniors.
The couple said they loved their time at the Traditions Ball because it is a great excuse to get dressed up and go out.
“This is the prom we never got,” Jared Thurman said.
This is because they both graduated from high school in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they are getting ready to graduate from BYU.
The couple said they were looking forward to taking advantage of the dance instruction offered to try to copy the ballroom dancers.
In addition to the dance lessons, the Traditions Ball provided light refreshments and had a raffle for a chance to win a dance with Cosmo at the end of the night.
The event leaned into the nostalgia and memories that students and alumni, young and old, could reflect on their time at BYU.
“I think it is a great opportunity to connect with traditions at BYU. We have yearbooks from like the 30s around, and we have different memorabilia. It’s a great opportunity for all students,” Manning said.
