Two Nova Scotia schools are banning dances, blaming out-of-control boozers, brawlers and girls in short skirts.
Glace Bay High cancelled its dances for the rest of the year after one in September.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/10/19/ns-school-dances-cancelled.html#ixzz12oaO7WyR
Both my parents were high-school principals and they certainly dreaded dance night. My mom has a funny story trying to tell a gymnasium full of horny teenagers how one should behave at a school dance: "The gentleman shall not dance behind the lady" and so on. Ha!
I had the opportunity to chaperone a grade 8 prom last June. Relatively well-behaved (by adult standards) and little intervention on behalf of teachers.
When I was a kid (late 60s. early 70s) my dad was expected to oversee school dances where adults were allowed.
THis was in the country, not the city, but whenever there was a CN or Hydro crew in the vicinity they would show up.
But, but, but.... if they ban school dances, how are they going to enforce heteronormality in teens?
Oh Im sure the heteronormality that society, school culture and the world imposes will do the job handily
That's thing about heteronormativity: you don't even need to try!
Anybody see Footloose in 1984 with Kevin Bacon? Well, it wasn't like that at our high school. We found ourselves stalking the same three or four girls at dances that we did the roller rink. I think we were turning Japanese then, or something.
Ten-year-old singing sensation Maria Aragon of Winnipeg performed with her idol, outrageous chart-topping singer Lady Gaga, during a sold-out concert in Toronto on Thursday night.
The grade-school student, who caught Gaga's attention after posting a cover of Born This Way online, sang the American pop star's hit single with her about an hour into the show at the Air Canada Centre.
Maria strode out dressed in shiny black pants, a pink shirt and a white hat.
"I'm really excited that Maria is here today, because Maria represents what this song is all about," Gaga said .
"It's all about the next generation and the future, and no more divisiveness."
The 10-year-old sat on her idol's lap at the piano and the pair performed to a roaring, cheering crowd.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/03/04/lady-gaga-toronto-aragon.html
Although now that there are dance clubs serving soda (while the kids get high and drunk before arriving) prepping teens for their future of bar hopping, perhaps the function the school dance served is getting stale?
I remember Born This Way from twenty years ago, when it was called Express Yourself. 
never went any school dances myself, went to the after parties though, and all the dance was the party before the party where we drank all our beer and acted like the dipshits we were at that age
I was on the Boys Athletic Association in grades 9 & 10. We sold pop, pizza and popcorn at highschool dances in the 1980s. We was turning Japanese and switching to glide on weekends at the roller rink. Good times. Easy times. I don't miss the turned-up jean jacket collars and fluffy hair do's, though. Some of us looked like the opposite sex. It was confusing sometimes.
I grew up as a teen in the 70's and went to a large english high school on the south shore of Montreal. When I was there the population of the school was around three thousand. Disco was of course the dance mucic of the time and there were dances constantly, even during lunch hour in a small sort of general meeting room, complete with glitter ball, dj, and thumping donna summers.
But the larger dances were after school hours and I don't recall ever seeing rowdy shit, let alone the school hiring security to keep order.
Ah yes Fidel, the roller rink, or what me and my friends called it, the Palladium. A huge wooden oval space blanketed in darkness except for the illumination provided by, again, glitter balls, strobe lights, colored flood lights and of course the deafening thump from Kool and the Gang.
There were four different phases in terms of skate activity. Phase 1 was everybody skating, 2 was women only, 3 was men only (very aggressive and competetive, lol), and 4 was couples only.
Funny none of it seemed so innocent then, seems so square by todays standards.
Kool and the Gang Ladies Night yeah!
High school dances in the mid-1960s Ottawa were held weekends at Pineland, near Ottawa Airport (formerly Uplands Airport). Some good Canadian bands then: the Staccatos, Townsmen, and a few others. I've seen them all.
Those bands sound familiar. I love the Ottawa area and especially in summer. Saw 54-40 and Blue Rodeo at Lansdowne Park in the 90s. Good times.
