The “Under The Sea” tri-school dance was held for three International Schools in Tokyo on March 7th, 2025. The event brought together students from three single-sex catholic schools – St. Mary’s International School (SMIS), Seisen International School (SIS), and the International School of Sacred Heart (ISSH). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Mary’s International School, Seisen International School, and the International School of Sacred Heart coordinated a rotation of three annual dances at three schools. However, this traditional event has been reduced to an annual event at one of the three schools since the pandemic. “Every year, we had three dances before COVID. Seisen, and then Sacred Heart, and then lastly St. Mary’s,” said Ms San Ho Kim, the dance coordinator. “I think this is because the principals changed, and they did not have any passover of the information of the previous ones,” said Ms Kim. As a result, there is a 67% reduction for three schools’ students in inter-gender socialization opportunities that have gone largely due to the iteration of management that leads to information gaps. Therefore, for seventh and eighth graders, this traditional event represents one of the few sanctioned opportunities for inter-gender socialisation in their gender-separated educational environment. “I was very excited for the dance since [the Student Council] planned it, … I also wanted to meet new people and try to talk to them,” said Hannah Schrader, one of Seisen International School’s student council members who participated in the planning stage of the dance. However, beneath this, seemingly straightforward social activity lies a crucial question. Does this dance accomplish its goals: fostering meaningful social interaction between students from three schools who rarely have opportunities to communicate with each other in their daily lives?
From 6 pm to 8 pm on March 7th, hundreds of students gathered in Seisen International School’s cafeteria. The event featured a central disco area illuminated by colour-changing light and a mirror ball while the food session area provided homemade snacks and sandwiches on tables along the perimeter. Although the dance floor was designed to encourage students to dance together, the majority of the students predominantly gathered in single-gender clusters. There was a significant phenomenon that St. Mary International School’s boys occupied half of the food section and the outer edges of the dance area, while girls from Seisen International School and International School Sacred Heart stayed either on the other half of the food session and the central part of the dancing area. This physical separation was reinforced when the music began. “I filled out a Google Form about the songs that I wanted to be played during the dance, but none of them were played,” said Max Lai, a grade 8 student from St. Mary’s International School who attended the dance. Despite some of the students from St. Mary’s submitting song requests through a pre-dance survey, the playlist heavily favoured contemporary pop hits that seemed to be primarily of interest to female attendees. For example, as Taylor Swift’s popular songs played, groups of Seisen and Sacred Heart girls enthusiastically sang and danced with the music under the mirror ball while many St. Mary’s boys remained seated by the refreshment table, and some visibly disengaged by running out from the dancing section. This observation, aligned with the research, “Gender Differences in Musical Taste: The Mediating Role of Functions of Music” that was conducted by Snjezana Dobrota, Ina Reić Ercegovac and Katarina Habe, shows that compared to males, females were more inclined to enjoy “Reflective and Complex musical styles”, as well as Slo-Yugo Popular music. In contrast, males tended to prefer music that was “Intense and Rebellious”.
When interviewed about music selection progress Schrader explained, “We sent out a form to ask for song suggestions. Then the teachers checked if they were R-rated.” This screening process was necessary for the school’s function but also meant that some requested songs, particularly those submitted by St. Mary’s International School’s students did not make the final playlists. “Also around halfway through the dance, they accept[ed] song suggestions on the spot. So it might [have made] it harder for the original songs that were in that playlist to play,” Schrader said. This impromptu request system inadvertently favoured students who were comfortable approaching the DJ booth – mostly girls from Seisen International School who were already familiar with the supervising teachers. Meanwhile, boys from St. Mary’s International School who were unfamiliar with both the setting and the teachers were less likely to approach the DJ booth. “Wait what, I didn’t know [about the impromptu request system],” said Kei Sasaki, an eighth-grade student council member from St. Mary’s International School who attended the dance.
The planning committee for the dance also reflected the imbalance between boys and girls. When asked if any students from St. Mary’s International School participated in the planning stage of the dance, Ms. Kim answered directly, “Not for the Seisen dance.” While Seisen International School’s middle school student council members put lots of effort into planning the dance, students from St. Mary’s International School were positioned only as attendees rather than co-creators. The exclusion of St. Mary’s International School’s students from the planning process represents a missed opportunity for building cross-school collaboration. The absence of St. Mary’s International students in the dance preparation process also had significant effects on student comfort levels and interactions. In a survey conducted among eighth graders in St. Mary’s International School, the result showed that 62.5% of eighth-grade boys that responded to the survey(40 out of 64 respondents) rated their comfort level as 3 or below on a 5-point scale when asked about interacting with unfamiliar female students in unfamiliar dance-based social settings. Additionally, when asked about the biggest barrier to meaningful inter-gender interactions between three schools; 31.3% of the responses pointed to “Limited opportunities to meet in structured settings”, while 26.6% of the responses chose “Lack of practice in cross-gender social activities”, and 25% of the whole selected “Social anxiety and discomfort.” These three factors highlight interconnected issues between students from three schools and they are interrelated with each other – fewer opportunities lead to less practice in inter-gender social activities, which increases social anxiety and then further discourages student’s participation in the dance. This situation illustrates a significant disconnect between event planning and participation.
Research suggests that this problem could be addressed through more inclusive planning involvement. According to Kitchen’s 2023 study on student partnership in event creation, when students are actively involved in planning processes, they develop stronger investment in results. The study found that “all students felt that their contribution was important, with 35.71% responding that their role was extremely important and 28.57% saying that their role was very important.” This research suggests that including St. Mary’s students in the planning committee could significantly improve both their sense of ownership and comfort at the event.
The challenges observed at the tri-school dance highlight structural issues that need to be resolved to achieve meaningful social interaction. Based on students’ feedback, teachers’ perspectives, and research, two areas can be improved: diversifying event types and truly implementing collaborative planning processes. First, restoring the tradition of three annual dances, reflecting on what was done in the past, can provide more inter-school opportunities for interaction; however, only increasing dance frequency may not be able to address students’ comfort issues. An additional effective way to increase student engagement is to provide a wide range of activities. “I think bowling nights are fun, even though we’ve had them before. It’d be better if the teams were mixed with guys and girls and set up ahead of time,” said Louis Hindle, an eighth-grade student. Just as Hindle mentioned, activities like bowling nights would produce moments of natural conversation through small pre-arranged groups of four to six students, with at least one from each school. This can help promote collaboration in team names and strategies while taking turns at the bowling lane. The second most critical change needed is to ensure all three schools have equal involvement in event planning processes. Kitchen’s research demonstrates that students who are involved in the planning process feel more engaged in their events, with over 64% reporting their contributions as “important” or “extremely important.” This shows that including St. Mary’s students in planning committees would directly address their reported discomfort. Therefore, a collaborative planning model would require that each event’s committee include at least two student representatives from each school. These representatives would collectively make decisions about event formats, music selection, activities, and promotion. Lastly, planning meetings would rotate between the three campuses so that it can ensure all students gain familiarity with each school’s environment.
Work Cited:
- Dobrota, Snjezana & Ercegovac, Ina & Habe, Katarina. (2019). Gender Differences in Musical Taste: The Mediating Role of Functions of Music. Drustvena istrazivanja. 28. 567-586. 10.5559/di.28.4.01.
- Kitchen, Eliza. (2023). Student partnership in creating an event: Benefits, challenges, and outcomes. International Journal for Students as Partners. 7. 142-150. 10.15173/ijsap.v7i2.5363.