At 8 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, STUCO began hanging up lights, posting signs and preparing drinks for the first dance of the school year, the Lions’ Leap Dance.

“We come early and make the place look amazing and fantastic, better than anyone has seen in their entire lives,” sophomore STUCO member Allison Ramaley said.

At 8:30 p.m. that night, students came flooding into the rotunda to rock out at the dance. When students came into the rotunda, it was decorated with green lights and had several fans to keep students cool.

“We put green lights around the poles just to give it more of that ‘you’re deep in the jungle feel,” senior STUCO member DJ Davis said.

Each grade were given a costume theme. Seniors were Olympians, juniors were hippies, sophomores were Hawaiian and freshman had neon colors. Lions’ Leap has a tradition of jungle theme, Davis said.

“The theme for Lions’ Leap is always jungly, normally we’ll hang up vines and then signs that say things that are important to being a lions,” he said. “We’ll normally put green lights around the poles just to give it more of that “you’re deep in the jungle feel.”

The Lions’ Leap dance lets the entire school come together and have a dance party in the rotunda.

“It was a lot of fun. It’s a lot better than the middle school dances,” freshman Isabel Mann said. “There’s a lot more people, and it seemed more energetic than the middle school dances.”

Lions’ Leap continued the tradition of students rocking out at the first dance of the school year, with fun themes, decorations and food.