Gowns, corsages, dancing and no teenagers

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Gowns, corsages, dancing and
no teenagers
LA PLUS BELLE POUR ALLER DANSER. Aux Etats-Unis, la «prom» est un rite de passage marquant la fin d’une période scolaire et, pour beaucoup, le passage de la vie de lycéen à celui d’étudiant. Cette soirée, souvent immortalisée dans les
films américains, est si importante qu’aujourd’hui de nombreux adultes veulent revivre ces moments magiques, entre
nostalgie et désirs inachevés…
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Gowns, corsages, dancing and no
teenagers
Des robes du soir, des petits
bouquets accrochés au corsage, des
bals mais pas d’adolescents
Wis.= Wisconsin / to shimmy into se glisser dans
(en ondulant des hanches) / to glitter étinceler,
scintiller / high heels hauts talons, escarpins /
prom (US) grand bal organisé dans un lycée ou
une université / to issue délivrer, prononcer /
stern sévère, strict / sharp ici pile, (ici 23 heures)
précises / to be careful prendre soin / to smell,
smelled or smelt sentir / breath souffle, haleine
/ the slightest le/la moindre / to drop off déposer / mother-in-law belle-mère.
2. advertisement publicité, annonce / attempt
tentative, effort / would-be aspirant, potentiel
/ reveler (US)= reveller (GB) fêtard / high school
lycée / to spike corser, alcooliser (une boisson) /
to hide, hid, hidden cacher, dissimuler / booze
(fam.) alcool / loud haut, fort.
3. prime parfait / to search for chercher, être en
quête de / gown robe de soirée / to brush elbows
with côtoyer, jouer des coudes avec / grown
adulte / Ind. = Indiana / Mass. = Massachusetts
/ Ga. = Georgia.
4. former ancien / classmate camarade de classe
/ eager avide, empressé, très désireux / to relive
revivre / prospect perspective / to deck out se
mettre sur son trente et un.
5. to evidence mettre en évidence, prouver / to
feature présenter, comporter / awkwardness
maladresse, gaucherie, timidité / to wonder se
demander / aloud à haute voix / date petit(e)
ami(e) / cluster groupe / forlorn solitaire et triste,
délaissé / to strew, strewed, strewed or strewn
one’s hands around entourer de ses bras, se
pendre (ici au cou de) / to wander s’aventurer /
waist taille / to blush rougir.
6. to mind prêter attention / do-over retour en
arrière, seconde chance / shot tentative, chance /
BY JENNIFER MEDINA
REEN BAY, Wis. – The last time Ashley Moeller shimmied into a satin
dress and glittering high heels for the
prom, her father issued a stern warning: Be
home by 11 p.m. sharp. He waited at the
door, careful to smell her breath for even the
slightest trace of alcohol. This time, she simply dropped the children off at her motherin-law’s house. Nobody would be waiting up
for Moeller, and her husband, Kurt, both 25,
to come home from the adult prom.
2. “Prom the way you always wanted it,” the
advertisement in Green Bay called out, an
attempt to attract would-be revelers whose
high school days have come and long gone.
“Where the punch is spiked, you don’t have
to hide the booze and the band plays loud.”
i
Beckie and Brent Sinkula get ready for an adult prom
in Green Bay, Wis. (NICOLE BENGIVENO/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
G
The night of their lives?
3. This is prime prom season, the time
when teenage girls spend hundreds of dollars for what they hope will be the perfect
night. But in an increasing number of cities
those teenagers searching for their prom
gowns are brushing elbows with grown
women, some at least double their age. Adult
proms have already taken place in Fort
Wayne, Ind., and Beverly, Mass., this year.
Others are planned in Decatur, Ga., and
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
4. These are not reunions of former high school
classmates eager to relive the prom night they
had together. A vast majority of revelers are in
their 20s and 30s, although a few are in their
early 60s and are simply excited at the prospect
of getting decked out and dancing – and voting for the night’s king and queen.
5. But the adult version, as evidenced here
in Green Bay, featured much of the same
awkwardness as the high school prom, made
only more tolerable with the addition of alcohol. Inside a ballroom, there was the
woman wondering aloud all night about
where her date had disappeared to. At another table sat the cluster who came for a
fun girls’ night out but looked rather forlorn.
In a corner of the dance floor, a woman had
her arms strewn around her date’s neck,
while his hands wandered down her waist
in a way that would surely make a chaperone blush.
A rite of passage
6. Really, nobody seemed to mind. This
was their do-over, another shot at perfection.
Or perhaps for some the first chance at
h
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Randa Genke, a 23-year-old prom goer,
left, dances with Ashley Moeller, 25 at an
adult prom in Green Bay, Wis. (NICOLE
BENGIVENO/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
a precious few bien peu de.
7. to settle s’installer / hairdresser coiffeur / tangerine (couleur) mandarine / knee-length arrivant au genou / ruched à ruchés (bandes étroites
plissées ou froncées de tulle ou de dentelle) /
spray-tan autobronzant / press-on nails faux
ongles.
8. to glance down at baisser les yeux sur / to
dress up s’habiller avec élégance, se mettre sur
son trente et un.
9. to hang, hung, hung up raccrocher / hardly à
peine.
10. to fork over débourser, allonger (argent) /
nearby proche / Jell-O shot cocktail alcoolisé à
base de gelée Jell-O / to encapsulate enfermer /
syringe seringue / dairy farm exploitation laitière.
11. earnest fervent, sincère / eagerness empressement, enthousiasme / to spot repérer, ici estimer, jauger / corsage petit bouquet de fleurs à
accrocher au corsage ou au poignet / to don
revêtir, arborer / to joke plaisanter / relief soulagement.
12. tie cravate / purple violet, cramoisi / frock
robe / to be bound to devoir (inévitablement), ne
pas manquer de.
13. to run, ran, run the gamut passer par toute
la gamme, ici être très éclectique / afterthought
pensée après coup, ici accessoire, secondaire /
bridesmaid demoiselle d’honneur / to relish goûter, savourer, apprécier / to manage réussir à / to
fit in entrer dans / to graduate obtenir son
diplôme de fin d’études (bac) / gamely vaillamment, hardiment, sans complexe / to rewear,
rewore, reworn porter à nouveau, remettre /
spaghetti-strap à fines bretelles / train traîne / to
trail traîner.
14. to shout hurler, crier / thin mince, ténu, léger,
a thin sound of shouts quelques faibles cris.
15. to bill as qualifier de, présenter comme / charity soirée/organisme de bienfaisance / barely
à peine / to top dépasser / tuxedo (US) smoking / upbeat enjoué, optimiste.
10 • VOCABLE Du 7 juillet au 7 septembre 2011
an American rite of passage. And for a precious few, a night to re-create one of the best
times of their lives.
7. Last Friday afternoon, Moeller and her
friend Randa Genke settled into their hairdresser’s chair, comparing notes about what
they had each spent on the evening. Moeller
had spent $140 on her tangerine knee-length
ruched dress, and $50 or so for her gold glittering shoes. Then came the $30 for the
spray-tan she got the day before, and she
would spend more on her hair and presson nails for the evening. All that before the
martini-and-steak dinner.
8. “It’s not cheap, but it’s special,” Moeller
said, glancing down at the list of what she
needed to do next. Her sister soon called,
wondering what she was doing. She answered: “Adult prom, I told you. We’re getting our hair done and we’re dressing up.”
9. She hung up, still surprised that her sister was so uninterested. “I’ve been thinking
about it for weeks,” Genke said. “I could
hardly sleep last night I was so excited.”
Wait for it
10. Indeed, much of the pleasure came
simply in the anticipation. Beckie and Brent
Sinkula forked over the money to stay at the
nearby AmericInn Hotel, giving them a
chance for their own private pre- and after
party. Their drink of choice? Jell-O shots encapsulated in large syringes like those that
Sinkula uses for the cows on his dairy farm.
11. A few women came with new boyfriends
– their earnest eagerness could be spotted by
the corsages they donned. Most couples had
been married for years, and a few people
joked about the relief of not worrying
whether they would “get lucky.”
12. “We’re adults, and we still want to have
fun,” Beckie Sinkula said. On nights when
they are not with their children, ages 14, 7
and 5, they generally stop for a drink at the
local bar. Tonight, with Brent in a shirt and
tie, and Beckie in an iridescent purple and
blue frock, was bound to feel different. “Every
year when I see the prom dresses I think
about how much fun it would be to have my
own again,” she said.
A new look
13. Fashion runs the gamut at adult
proms – though for men, it is mostly an afterthought. A few women recycle bridesmaid
dresses, but many more seem to relish the
chance to buy a new gown. And at each
prom, there is at least one woman who manages to fit into the same dress she wore in
high school. (In Green Bay, that honor went
to a young woman who had graduated just
a few years ago and gamely rewore her electric-pink spaghetti-strap gown, a train trailing past her high heels.)
A few women recycle
bridesmaid dresses, but many
more seem to relish the
chance to buy a new gown.
14. “How you feeling tonight on your prom?”
the band leader shouted. A thin sound of enthusiastic shouts echoed through the room.
The dance floor was only half full, with the
band playing classic rock like “Mustang
Sally,” “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Hotel
California” from an era long before most of
these promgoers were born.
15. Matt Miller, the organizer of the event,
which was billed as a charity, initially hoped
that 300 people would come. The numbers
barely topped 100. Still, he was a picture of enthusiasm – decked out in a white tuxedo jacket.
The prom committee always has to be upbeat.
King & Queen
16. Miller said he was careful to keep intact one of the most vaunted prom traditions: naming the king and queen. It cost a
dollar to cast each vote, and while attendees
could vote as many times as they liked, men
were only to vote for women and women
were only to vote for men. A few Polaroid pictures (yes, they had an old model) showed
each of the nominees.
17. When the votes were tallied, the woman
in the stunning tangerine dress had garnered
far more votes than any other nominee.
Moeller gasped as the organizer placed the
rhinestone tiara on her head, poufed-up hair
still perfectly intact. She danced with the
prom king, and then twirled around with
her husband a couple more times. But by
11:30, she was ducking out the door. “I’m really tired,” she said, with a hint of embarrassment. “I don’t want to drink too much.”
After all, she had two young children to get
home to. ●
Anti-proms!
Anti-prom and morp (prom spelled in reverse)
is a social event often staged by high school students as a protest against, or boycott of, their
school’s official prom, as an alternative celebration. Other times, it may be an unofficial
prom, planned by the students themselves so
that it is not under the control of the school.
Some of the more common reasons for the creation of an anti-prom include the desire to curb
the large cost of a traditional prom, to listen
to music other than that expected to be played
at the official prom, to have a smaller, more personal get-together, or have looser and less strict
rules than the school’s. Another common antiprom is an unofficial dance set up by freshmen
and sophomores as they cannot go to prom without a junior or senior. l
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16. to vaunt vanter / to cast, cast, cast a vote
voter / attendee personne présente.
17. to tally compter, comptabiliser / stunning stupéfiant, sensationnel / to garner engranger, ici
recueillir / to gasp haleter, suffoquer, rester pantois / rhinestone faux diamant, strass / tiara diadème / poufed-up= puffed-up gonflé, bouffant
/ to twirl around tourbillonner / to duck out the
door s’esquiver / hint touche, pointe, soupçon /
embarrassment gêne, honte.
ANTI-PROMS!
spelled in reverse à l’envers, en verlan / to stage
organiser / to curb limiter / get-together petite
fête / loose souple / freshman (US) élève de 1ère
année de lycée / sophomore (US) élève de 2nde
année de lycée / junior (US) élève de 3ème année
de lycée / senior (US) élève de terminale.
Du 7 juillet au 7 septembre 2011 VOCABLE • 11