A new dance called Rocklin’s Wild Side took place Sept. 12, 2025. It was unlike any other dance held at Rocklin High School before. The jungle theme elevated the excitement and redefined the reputation of this “in-between” dance.

The ASB Activities Committee spent numerous hours planning Rocklin’s Wild Side. Senior Caroline Simmons, commissioner of the committee, led the other members: Olivia Allen, Brook Wells, Giselle Santana, Aubrey Bales, Dana Zhazulin, Madison Daley and Elenor Stevens. After brainstorming during ASB, senior Olivia Allen pitched the idea of a jungle-themed dance. Junior Aubrey Bales said she “saw something on TikTok a couple years ago and thought it was a really good idea.” Simmons added, “We all agreed that this theme would be the cutest and easiest to do.”

Once the theme was chosen, Activities began planning how to decorate the gym. “Pinterest is our best friend whenever we’re planning dances, and also Mrs. Kenitzer helps a lot,” Simmons said. With Pinterest’s help, the committee planned balloon arches, vines reused from a previous dance, banners, animal balloons and painted windows. Not only was the idea easy to execute, but it was also unique. “This [theme] isn’t repetitive. We haven’t had a jungle dance before,” Bales said. With the original theme, Activities hoped to attract more students.

There was definitely a lot of cheetah print, leopard print, and animal style.

– Ethan Spears

A big draw was the outfits, “because the dress code is set, I think that helps a lot of people if they’re confused about what to wear to a dance,” Simmons said. The outfits proved to be a huge success. Junior Ethan Spears said he and his friends “wore all black and had these leopard ears, and [he] also painted leopard spots on all of [their] faces … it was cool to have everyone be cohesive with their outfits.” Many others wore animal-style costumes, including freshman Samantha Gayton. “It definitely wasn’t something where people just showed up casually. I saw a lot of leopards and cute animals,” Gayton said.

Overall, Activities hoped the dance would be successful and exciting for students. “I hope that everybody likes it and sees the hard work that we put into it,” Simmons said. In the end, that proved to be true. Although attendance was not large, students who came had a phenomenal time. Spears rated his first Rocklin’s Wild Side dance an eight out of 10, saying he “had a lot of fun.”

Nothing compares to RHS

Freshman Samantha Gayton explains that this was her first Rocklin dance, since she did not go to the Welcome Back dance. Compared to her old middle school dances at Granite Oaks, Gayton said “I definitely think they’re a step up when it comes to the blocks that they had out there… and there’s definitely more space and more hype towards the dance”.

To wrap up the dance Gayton said she “would have given it probably a seven [out of ten] only because not a lot of people showed up”.