Goodbye, Citystep Ball, Goodbye

Citystep is guilty.

Guilty of changing its campus-wide black-tie fall ball to a club party, that is. Citystep, which teaches dance to 120 Cambridge middle-schoolers, has 74 members­—and almost that many guilty pleasures, if its saucy red posters plastered around campus are correct.

So why tonight’s shift from classy to self-indulgent?

“With a ball, there’s a lot of pressure, a lot of work beforehand,” Andrew C. Stillman ’06 said, listing its inherent hassles: finding a date, renting a tux, buying flowers. It’s a turn-off, and Citystep organizers just wanted to make the event as inclusive as possible.

The “event formerly known as the ball,” according to special events coordinator Carolyn A. Daly ’05-’06, was held at venues like the Park Plaza and mirrored a punch event­—complete with hand-written invitations on the door of every Harvard suite. The Citystep ball was the premier campus fall event before the proliferation of fall House formals, drawing more than 4,000 students some years, according to executive co-producer Meghan V. Joyce ’06.

“The Citystep ball has always been successful, but we’re trying to adapt to Harvard’s changing social scene,” Joyce said. Last year, the “Creative Black Tie” event was held at The Roxy, and tonight, the party will be at Axis, a trendy Boston nightclub.

And to make the party fun for as many as possible, it will feature two dance floors­—one for club jams, and another for guilty pleasures. A guilty pleasure, said Anne T. Hilby ’06, is “anything that you laugh at before admitting that you like it” (think Dancing Queen).

Cheesy music isn’t the only indulgence Guilty promises.

And, adds Hilby, “there’s chocolate.”