DURBAN – MATRIC dance season is in full swing and Hillcrest High School has been doing some fancy footwork.
The class of 2017 rolled up at the co-ed Outer West school on Friday evening in some out- there rides – everything from American muscle cars to an ambulance.
Hundreds of parents, pupils and the curious packed grandstands and thronged behind crowd control-barriers to welcome the prom princesses and their beaux.
It was Hollywood-red-carpet-meets-motor-show as the youngsters emerged from rumbling hot rods, Italian exotics, supercars, classics and limousines to the dazzle of camera flashes, cheering and ululating crowds.
The theme for the night was "Bohemian Rhapsody" and rock band Queen's frontman, Freddie Mercury, would surely have approved of the operatic excess of it all.
Girls in elegant ballgowns graced the arms of freshly scrubbed schoolboy rugby heroes. Others struggled out of low-slung cars, tottering on high heels and attired in the attention-seeking style favoured by Tinseltown starlets.
“This is all about making an entrance. It’s five minutes of fame,” said Gill Jones, who was there to watch her daughter, Kay-Leigh Duxbury, arrive in a Ford Mustang with her date, Justin van Eden.
“Other schools are about the dresses,” said Jones, a real petrolhead who provided those in earshot with a running commentary on the cars.
Nimmy Rampersad, who was with her family for the spectacle, said: “We all just come for the cars – all these fancy cars.”
Her daughter, Kiara Rampersad, is in Grade 11, so she has until next year to prepare for her dance.
“We are going to save every penny for next year,” she said.
But for another parent, Thembi Zondi, the hour had arrived.
She told The Tribune there had been some last-minute drama when the car meant to take daughter Hlengiwe to the dance failed to materialise.
But the proud mom pulled some strings and a friend’s
Mercedes-Benz eventually took the belle to the ball.
“It’s like the Durban July,” said Zondi of the pageantry.
“The girls are so pretty.”
Many other dance-goers begged, borrowed or hired cars for the night, with some clearly letting their imaginations run riot.
A private ambulance popped open its rear door to let a paramedic release a bunch of balloons before two youngsters climbed out to greet the crowd.
Then a metro police Black Maria arrived with a handsome couple in the back.
A young man rode pillion on a scooter behind his glamorous date.
There were plenty of cheers when an enterprising young lad arrived, pushing his date in a shopping trolley decorated with lights and balloons.
Tom Gifford, whose daughter, Georgia, was attending the dance, confessed he found all the hoopla a bit “foreign” and “very Carnivale”, but said the youngsters loved it.
He was impressed by the lengths they went to, “seeking out people with suitable cars”.
Headmaster Craig Girvin, who was waiting on the red carpet to greet the 190 matrics and their partners, said: “I was happy to see even some individual arrivals making such a confident entrance on their own,
which made me very proud at how our school has empowered our students in this way.”
He said the night had been “spectacular” but warned the starstruck pupils: “Now it is time to get back to the books.”