The prom entrance to end all prom entrances
And just when we thought prom shenanigans couldn’t get any more over-the-top, enter the Sleeping Beauty-themed entrance. Two teens in the Bahamas took the whole show-stopping entrance thing to new levels—and stirred a little viral controversy in the process.
Ashvonn Russell and Johnny Auguste staged their elaborate arrival as part of a competition for the “best prom entrance.” They were up against students from three separate schools on the Abaco Islands, so they had to bring their A-game. To do so, Russell arrived at the dance in an ambulance, was wheeled out on a stretcher, and “brought back to life” with a kiss by Auguste, her date.
Images of the entrance have been retweeted almost 8,000 times, though the response has been mixed. A lot of people are fawning over the ingenuity it took to come up with something so elaborate. Others feel the use of a real ambulance went way too far, and possibly wasted vital resources. (“Someone could’ve been dying and she using that ambulance to go to prom smh,” @daniel_m103 tweeted.)
For Russell, an artist, the challenge of staging an unforgettable prom entrance was more about story-telling than anything else. “This is evident in all of my paintings and drawings, which are mostly inspired by fairy tales,” she told Buzzfeed. “Sleeping Beauty with a modern twist captured my interest for my prom entrance.”
Still, she regrets sparking such backlash.
“My hope for this theme was genuinely and solely to win best entrance by my unique style of entry and not for some of the negative attention and exposure it has received,” she added, in an interview with Buzzfeed. “For all the people of my great nation and around the world that I have offended, I apologize. It was not my intention to offend anyone.”
Over the past couple years, everything about prom has gotten much bigger in scale. From promposals that involve fake arrests and some serious money to entrances like this one, it’s becoming harder and harder to “outdo” the competition.
But that’s not what prom is about at the end of the day — it’s a chance to dress up and have fun with your friends as you say good-bye to high school. While it’s great that students are finding ways to make their experience memorable, trust me when I say that even without a viral promposal or entrance, you’ll never forget prom.
