Frolic makes its return with 1920s Shanghai theme at the Grand Hotel

By Erin Wu (‘25)

Frolic, the upper school winter formal, is making a comeback on Dec. 21. The upcoming event will be the first since 2019, which was when it was last hosted.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the formal was canceled in the past three years. There was an event held at the Taipei Children’s Amusement Park in place of Frolic in 2020. Although events have been held to replace the dance, this is the first year that students will have a traditional Frolic.

The upper school Student Government (StuGov) is in charge of planning the formal, where students get to dress up, have dinner, watch performances and dance at a designated hotel venue.

The theme for this year will be Shanghai in the 1920s, and the dance will be held at Taipei Grand Hotel.

StuGov officers began to start focusing more on planning for Frolic after Field Day.

“We first come up with a date, the theme and which hotel we’re holding it at,” said Erin S. (‘23, she/her), a StuGov officer. “Most of the activities are similar to the years before so we get to use information from past years.”

Planning for the event is a group process involving all members of the StuGov. After specific details such as the date, theme and venue are decided, the officers divide up jobs like ordering food, buying decorations and promoting it. StuGov members participated as well, whether that be setting up and cleaning up on the day of the dance, helping sell tickets or making promotions beforehand.

“It feels more like Frolic was put on pause, because things haven’t changed much,” Erin said. “If [COVID-19] increases, we’ll have to change some stuff, but as for right now, we’re just planning it as if it’s a normal year.”

Though the effects of COVID-19 have increasingly lightened over the past year, it still has some indirect impacts on Frolic this year. “We’re a little worried that because there hasn’t been a Frolic in the past two years, students may not be as excited about it,” Erin said.

However, students seem to look forward to attending the school event again. “I think even with COVID, it’s fun to dress up and go with friends,” Ocean T. (‘25, she/her), a student planning to attend Frolic, said. Other students are just glad to have school events continue as normal. “I’m really excited for Frolic because the last dance I went to was Candlelight in middle school, and that was really fun. I miss it,” Shelby T. (‘25, she/ her) said.

However, the general protocols for if a student contracts COVID-19 remain the same. Students who see the nurse with symptoms on campus are sent home with a COVID-19 test. If they test positive, nurses contact their academic counselors, who then communicate with the student’s teachers.

As of Nov. 14, confirmed positive COVID-19 cases will only be required to home quarantine for five days, followed by a seven-day self-health management procedure. Campus access will be permitted after completing the five-day quarantine if symptom free, according to Chief Operating Officer Mr. Larry Kraut in a message on the Parent Post.

The process for positive cases begins with the nurses reaching out to the family to see how the student is doing. The nurses then work with parents to ensure a plan for the student’s return to school, which comes after a five-day quarantine requirement.

This “chain process,” as Ms. Cheng described, has been tough on everyone impacted: administrators, counselors, teachers, parents, students and nurses. “It’s been a lot of work we did not anticipate,” Ms. Cheng said.

According toTAS Communications’s Parent Post, close contacts within a home, like siblings, are permitted on campus during a seven-day period of self-initiated prevention. Contacts are allowed on campus, subject to a negative COVID-19 test within two days of campus access, effective Nov. 7.

Since Nov. 7, TAS is no longer required to confirm the vaccination status of anyone entering campus or participating in school events, including on and off-campus activities, according to Mr. Kraut.

For teachers who contract, COVID-19, there are several backup plans. Either an appropriate TAS teacher would step in to substitute for the class or a substitute teacher would monitor the students in class while the teacher teaches on Zoom.

At one point in the semester, up to five math and computer science teachers were out with COVID-19. “Teachers worked really hard to cover each other,” Upper School Principal Mr. Andrew Lowman said. “It’s hard to teach four classes a day.”

Ultimately, as government policies continue to change, the TAS community can only adapt. “Things are constantly changing,” Mr. Lowman said. “We’re [always] trying to deliver the TAS program.”