An EC dance to remember

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October 6, 2009

By Barry Porterfield The Democrat Tue Oct 06, 2009, 03:53 PM CDT

Plans are in place to commemorate a slice of Elmore City history that once set the stage for a major motion picture.

The planned spring event is a dance — one not unlike a gathering dating back nearly three decades that inspired the making of the movie “Footloose.”

Marking the first time that dancing was allowed at an Elmore City junior-senior prom is a special 30th anniversary event planned for April 17, 2010.

That’s the date when alumni and faculty of Elmore City-Pernell Schools will join with the community for a celebration of that historic dance.

“We’re thinking it’s going to be a pretty big deal,” said Lisa Rollings.

Rollings is currently Elmore’s city clerk and treasurer, but back then she was a sophomore at ECHS when the dance issue hit its peak.

“We’ve already gotten a lot of interest in it. A lot of the country knows about it but some people around here don’t know anything about it,” she said, adding the city occasionally gets research-related calls on the dance.

“We’re just trying to get the word out and let everybody plan ahead. Everybody is invited, not just class members.”

The celebration will look back to April 1980 when a group of seniors, juniors and sophomores at Elmore City High were allowed to dance at a prom for the first time, ever.

With assistance from the local schools, next year’s city-sponsored anniversary will include a parade, a street dance and a re-creation of the first prom that included dancing.

Rollings knows first-hand there was absolutely no dancing at the proms before that.

“Back then with the prom after you ate most kids would drive to Lindsay to bowl. There was no dancing,” she said.

Then came a student led push to break tradition. They wanted the annual spring banquet to include a dance.

“There was a section in the 1979 city ordinance book where there was no dancing. It just wasn’t allowed,” Rollings said.

However, that wasn’t the real obstacle in getting the approval for a school dance.

Instead it was the local school board.

“The big deal was the school board. There were so many religious differences,” she said about the board members.

It was a tight vote but one that did allow a dance at the prom.

“Everybody went crazy when they voted to allow the dancing. It was pretty cool,” Rollings said.

A few weeks later, when the prom was held, the event became the stuff of legend because of all the media attention.

Held in Elmore’s grade school cafeteria, a banquet was followed by the actual dance, which Rollings stressed was nothing like the movie.

“There was media everywhere, television cameras, People magazine was there. Parents and teachers came. There was only a small little space for the students to dance. The cafeteria wasn’t nearly big enough for all the people there.”

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