Cotillion turns back to tradition
With over 60 years of dances, dates, and dresses under its wing, Wellesley Cotillion is no stranger to change. This year, while it will still offer the dance today’s high schoolers expect, Cotillion will look back to its simpler origins.
Taking place after the school break on January 9 (rather than before break, as usual), the dance will not have its usual holiday connotation. “At some point, I think we have to do away with Christmas anyway,” co-chair Cynthia Westerman said about the dance’s later date, “since not everybody celebrates it.”
A group of parent volunteer Cotillion planners has guided the decorating to focus on a “simple winter wonderland theme.” Cotillion co-chair Gina Francis further described the theme, saying, “This year we decided to bring Cotillion back to its roots as simple, elegant, and classic with a starry night theme,” she said, describing her vision of simple decorations with little white lights.
“I think it’s really good that they’re bringing it back to the original [simplicity],” said Filippa Davisson ’17, who will attend Cotillion for the first time this winter. “I am looking forward to the beautiful evening, and I think it will be fun no matter what.”
The later date of the dance is due mostly to the reluctance of volunteers to become co-chairs. The organizers typically reach out to the parents of rising juniors the spring before the coming Cotillion to give them enough time to book a venue, organize committees, order invitations, and prepare all the various details that go into the dance in advance.This spring, however, no one wanted to take on the task of co-chairing.
Finally, Francis, once a Wellesley High School student and Cotillion attendee herself, and Westerman agreed to co-chair the event. Westerman said she agreed to co-chair the event with the condition that the committee worked to make the dance safer than last year’s Cotillion. Thus, she, Francis, and the Cotillion committee, confronted some of the issues they had seen in the past, most notably drinking and exclusion.
After talking to other high schools and brainstorming, they came up with the idea to require bus transport on luxury coach busses from the high school to the Dorothy Quincy Suites in the Back Bay, where the event will take place.
Francis added that coordinating bus transport helps Cotillion in reaching its goals of becoming more environmentally friendly since busses take more cars off the road. As part of hoping to becoming greener, the invites have moved online. While the invitations still arrive in the mail as traditional, registration and payment all take place on a streamlined website, which not only saves paper but also organizes the process for the committee and provides a database for parent volunteers in case of an emergency during the event.
Most prominently, the new transport system also addresses one of the largest problems with Cotillion: intoxication. Parent chaperones will check students before they get off the bus at the high school, when they get off the bus in the Back Bay and then repeat the process after the event. Chaperones will ride with students on the bus to monitor their behavior and will check bags before students enter the event.
Francis stressed that she does not support students drinking before, or at, the event. “You don’t need drinking to enjoy yourself,” she said. “The night should be about music, dresses and dancing. You can go have fun for three hours without drinking.” Westerman added, “we want to do whatever it takes to give you that venue to have an elegant dance… it’s safe place for everybody.”
Francis noted all the things that the committee has planned to make the event fun, without the assistance of alcohol. She looks forward to the DJ, who, Francis says, has gotten phenomenal reviews and already is accepting song requests online.
The simplistic theme that Francis, Westerman, and the Cotillion organizes have planned relates back to a larger on-going issue they hoped to tackle -- the growing cost of the event. “Cotillion keeps getting bigger, bigger, and bigger,” Francis said. “This has prompted the scaling back to the simple starry-night theme, to just have the whole mood of Cotillion not be over the top.”
The ticket price of $105 covers the costs, leaving the committee with just enough to break even and provide for next year. “When we printed that we were going to be around the $100, we didn’t know how we were going to do it, but we knew we had a goal to do that,” Westerman said. She added that it has taken thoughtful strategy to reach this goal.“It’s a balance,” she said “I wouldn’t say it’s over the top and expensive; it’s an elegant evening, and we’re really watching our dollars to maximize the effect.”
However, they worried that pricing the tickets at $100 would exclude those who could not put their money towards an evening of dancing, so they provide financial assistance to those who need it, in a “very discrete system,” as Francis described.
Since the Cotillion committee plans the event under an abbreviated schedule, where changes occur quickly, they urge students and parents to refer to their website, wellesleycotillion.weebly.com, for the most up-to-date information about event logistics.
This article was published in the January 2016 print issue of The Bradford.
Taking place after the school break on January 9 (rather than before break, as usual), the dance will not have its usual holiday connotation. “At some point, I think we have to do away with Christmas anyway,” co-chair Cynthia Westerman said about the dance’s later date, “since not everybody celebrates it.”
A group of parent volunteer Cotillion planners has guided the decorating to focus on a “simple winter wonderland theme.” Cotillion co-chair Gina Francis further described the theme, saying, “This year we decided to bring Cotillion back to its roots as simple, elegant, and classic with a starry night theme,” she said, describing her vision of simple decorations with little white lights.
“I think it’s really good that they’re bringing it back to the original [simplicity],” said Filippa Davisson ’17, who will attend Cotillion for the first time this winter. “I am looking forward to the beautiful evening, and I think it will be fun no matter what.”
The later date of the dance is due mostly to the reluctance of volunteers to become co-chairs. The organizers typically reach out to the parents of rising juniors the spring before the coming Cotillion to give them enough time to book a venue, organize committees, order invitations, and prepare all the various details that go into the dance in advance.This spring, however, no one wanted to take on the task of co-chairing.
Finally, Francis, once a Wellesley High School student and Cotillion attendee herself, and Westerman agreed to co-chair the event. Westerman said she agreed to co-chair the event with the condition that the committee worked to make the dance safer than last year’s Cotillion. Thus, she, Francis, and the Cotillion committee, confronted some of the issues they had seen in the past, most notably drinking and exclusion.
After talking to other high schools and brainstorming, they came up with the idea to require bus transport on luxury coach busses from the high school to the Dorothy Quincy Suites in the Back Bay, where the event will take place.
Francis added that coordinating bus transport helps Cotillion in reaching its goals of becoming more environmentally friendly since busses take more cars off the road. As part of hoping to becoming greener, the invites have moved online. While the invitations still arrive in the mail as traditional, registration and payment all take place on a streamlined website, which not only saves paper but also organizes the process for the committee and provides a database for parent volunteers in case of an emergency during the event.
Most prominently, the new transport system also addresses one of the largest problems with Cotillion: intoxication. Parent chaperones will check students before they get off the bus at the high school, when they get off the bus in the Back Bay and then repeat the process after the event. Chaperones will ride with students on the bus to monitor their behavior and will check bags before students enter the event.
Francis stressed that she does not support students drinking before, or at, the event. “You don’t need drinking to enjoy yourself,” she said. “The night should be about music, dresses and dancing. You can go have fun for three hours without drinking.” Westerman added, “we want to do whatever it takes to give you that venue to have an elegant dance… it’s safe place for everybody.”
Francis noted all the things that the committee has planned to make the event fun, without the assistance of alcohol. She looks forward to the DJ, who, Francis says, has gotten phenomenal reviews and already is accepting song requests online.
The simplistic theme that Francis, Westerman, and the Cotillion organizes have planned relates back to a larger on-going issue they hoped to tackle -- the growing cost of the event. “Cotillion keeps getting bigger, bigger, and bigger,” Francis said. “This has prompted the scaling back to the simple starry-night theme, to just have the whole mood of Cotillion not be over the top.”
The ticket price of $105 covers the costs, leaving the committee with just enough to break even and provide for next year. “When we printed that we were going to be around the $100, we didn’t know how we were going to do it, but we knew we had a goal to do that,” Westerman said. She added that it has taken thoughtful strategy to reach this goal.“It’s a balance,” she said “I wouldn’t say it’s over the top and expensive; it’s an elegant evening, and we’re really watching our dollars to maximize the effect.”
However, they worried that pricing the tickets at $100 would exclude those who could not put their money towards an evening of dancing, so they provide financial assistance to those who need it, in a “very discrete system,” as Francis described.
Since the Cotillion committee plans the event under an abbreviated schedule, where changes occur quickly, they urge students and parents to refer to their website, wellesleycotillion.weebly.com, for the most up-to-date information about event logistics.
This article was published in the January 2016 print issue of The Bradford.