The Neon Dance last Friday night was a huge success for the leadership class. What made this school dance successful was the music. Some students may not realize the amount of work that goes into creating a playlist, but Junior Kennedy Walgren does, leading a group of students to make this year’s Neon Dance a memorable moment.
“It’s a lot harder than you think it is, ‘cause you have to take into consideration everybody who is going to the dance, so it has to appeal to everybody,” says Walgren.
There are so many factors that go into making playlists for dances, and Walgren knows them all. She was asked the top factors she has to think about when taking her playlist into action.
“I get other student’s input, I like to ask different

(Hannah Cox)
groups, people who I don’t hang out with. I will literally ask anybody and anyone. You can’t make everybody happy; everybody has completely different music tastes, and that’s okay. You gotta go with what the majority is going to like,” Walgren says.
The leadership team took a different approach to music this year. Having used Amazon Music in the past for all dances, this one was different, testing to see if Spotify would work just as well. Although Leadership Advisor Mr. Groce was skeptical about using Spotify, he decided to let the music crew try it out.
“Amazon Music lags all the time. It’s terrible. I had to log into the Spotify account on three different computers because he’s [Mr. Groce] very worried that something is going to happen at the dance. After all, we’ve never used Spotify, so he’s very scared,” says Walgren.
Not all people know that dance playlists are chosen so carefully. After much deliberation on which songs to add, Walgren finally had the perfect playlist created. When asked about how she creates the playlist, Walgren knew her response right away.
“We try to put more of the least fan favorites at the beginning, kinda like the intro songs to get people started dancing, and then the best songs are in the middle. Then at the end, we have like Church Clap, the Mamma Mia songs, just like the interactive stuff where people know dances for it. We put the interactive songs at the end because people who are there to dance stay the entire time; they are there for those dancing songs. But other people who don’t stay the entire time they are more there to be social.”
Walgren hopes the playlist will make a good start for the year, and it appears the students think it did.
Freshman Uriah Miller, who went to the dance, had some positive thoughts about the music.
“I liked the church clap; it’s just a good song, I know the moves, although I would like to see Saja Boy being played.”
Mrs. Yousey, who was also at the dance, really enjoyed herself as she listened to the music when she saw how the students loved it so much.
“I thought there were a lot of good songs. It seemed like people loved them, and it seemed like they were having fun, so I think overall it was good,” Yousey says.
Addison Chudnofsky • Sep 10, 2025 at 10:06 am
I love this article so much. It really opens my mind to understanding how much work really goes into the Neon Dance. Great job!