By GINA TALAMO

Editor-in-Chief [cincopa AwFA6RL93RNy]

Photo Slideshow By HALIE AARON

Website Editor

The Class of 2014 hosted a “British Invasion” back-to-school dance on Friday that featured an appearance by Twitter.

Council member Landen Naphtali of Morganville said that planning for the dance had gone smoothly, despite not having sold many tickets on the first day of sales.

“We thought we might not [sell] enough, but ticket sales are always slow on the first day,” he said. The council sold a total of 164 tickets for the dance, according to Class President Dylan Ablan of Middletown.

The dance was the first CHS event supervised by a Wall Township police officer, according to Principal James Gleason. Gleason also said that the event was well-attended and that the students had been on their “best behavior.”

“The threat of having a cop made the dance more controlled, but I still think people had a lot of fun,” said Ablan.

Visual features of the dance included hand painted posters of the Union Flag, as well as others reading “God save the Queen” and “Work Hard, Play Hard.”

One new visual was a projected screen on the wall, displaying tweets under the hashtag #BritishInvasionCHS.  Senior Tyler Paley of Howell said he learned about the website, visibletweets.com, while at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s convention last spring. He said he suggested using Visible Tweets to the class council, and that they “thought it would be a great and simple addition that the students would enjoy.”

The Twitter feature was shortlived, though, after profanities showed up on the feed, Paley said today.

Paley also DJed the event, advertising his brand as “DJ Bear” on posters in school hallways. Senior Noah Gorstein of Millstone served as his assistant.

Sophomore Meagan McDowell of Neptune said she enjoyed the dance’s playlist and that “it was cool that some of them were British artists and some of them were American artists.”

The British Invasion dance was only the second dance in CHS history to feature a student DJ, according to Paley.

“I think it was a new experience for a lot of people, and I’m glad everyone seemed to enjoy it,” Paley said.