Upperclassmen used to go to dances all the time. Dances were a pretty big deal for the general populace, and members of all tiers of the Uni social heirarchy would attend. People would actually ask "Why not?" if you told them you weren't going to the dance. Cliques would hang out beforehand and arrive together. There was actually competition over which DJ teams would DJ which dances (Martin Granick and I being the last of the orthodox DJ pairs). After the class of '06 graduated, dances seemed to cease being considered worthwhile functions to attend - it felt to me that they had lost their glamor. I don't know what the implications of this are.
You're not mistaken
Upperclassmen used to go to dances all the time. Dances were a pretty big deal for the general populace, and members of all tiers of the Uni social heirarchy would attend. People would actually ask "Why not?" if you told them you weren't going to the dance. Cliques would hang out beforehand and arrive together. There was actually competition over which DJ teams would DJ which dances (Martin Granick and I being the last of the orthodox DJ pairs). After the class of '06 graduated, dances seemed to cease being considered worthwhile functions to attend - it felt to me that they had lost their glamor. I don't know what the implications of this are.