BY AHLIA DUNN ’20
The Dive In Movie, a Mount Holyoke tradition, came back to conclude orientation events and the first week of classes on Friday, Sept. 8. A couple of times a year students from all class years gather in the Kendall Natatorium to watch a movie (usually something with a water-related theme).
The movie of the evening was “Teen Beach Movie,” a 2013 movie that pulls inspiration from the beach films of the 60s and “West Side Story.” “Teen Beach Movie” stars Ross Lynch and Maia Mitchell as two modern-day surfers who are literally swept away into the 60s movie musical “Wet Side Story.”
While trapped in the musical, Lynch and Mitchell’s characters find themselves in the middle of a “surfer Romeo and biker Juliet” feud and discover that their presence and decisions have the ability to change the outcome of the movie.
Residential Life Area Coordinator Christine Albain planned the event, which began at 7:30 p.m. and attracted over 50 students from all class years. According to Albain The Dive In Movie event began three years ago with the first water-related film of “Jaws.”
Photo by Izzy Olgaard ’18
Students attending Residential Life’s Dive in Movie watch “Teen Beach Movie” in floaties in the Kendall Natatorium.
Despite the event’s name, attendees do not need to get wet to participate. While some floated around in inner tubes in the pool, there was a “group of students in the bleachers that were sort of singing and dancing along to all of it, that was really fun” Albain said.
Casey Roepke ’21, a self-described “very cheesy person,” really enjoyed the movie and the event. She loved the movie’s songs and how the event’s location matched the movie’s theme. She also noted the “delicious” mini cupcakes served at the event.
“It was great to be able to hang out with students of different years and talk about the slightly feminist characters or ridiculous costumes,” said Roepke.
As a first-year, Roepke really appreciated the event and its purpose. “It seemed like the kind of event that would not have been offered anywhere else. . . I had been looking forward to it since I heard about it, even before I came to campus,” she said. “It just seemed like a goofy, cozy way to start the weekend.”