On January 30, 2019, OCSA students participated in the annual Color Wars.

For the students of OCSA, school started extra early. At 7:30 am, Color Wars participants were allowed to begin decorating their hallways and doors. The morning set the tone for the rest of the day, as spirit and camaraderie were high. With ideas ranging from YouTube to the 80s, the Color War provided students with a new medium of expression.

The list of classes, colors, and themes is as follows:

6th grade:

For the Class of 2025, students chose to represent the color red with the theme of YouTube. The performance included dances to many of the past year’s most popular dances. The 6th grade hallway was filled with physical YouTube profiles and spaces for commentary.

7th grade:

The Class of 2024 represented the color orange with The Lorax. Students performed as characters from the popular movie and danced to it’s main song, “Let it Grow.” The 7th grade hallway was comprised of students playing music from the movie and handing out orange- colored snacks.

8th grade:

The Class of 2023 decided upon the theme of video games to represent the color yellow. The 8th grade hallway was full of doors decorated like scenes from the world’s most popular videogames.

9th grade:

The Freshman Class of 2022 used their love of music to their advantage, as they used the popular music streaming platform Spotify to represent green. The hallway’s secluded but interesting view enticed students to walk through a progression of music genres. The dance encompassed each genre of music and spanned throughout the entire auditorium.

10th grade:

The Sophomore Class of 2021 took their idea of leaving a legacy and ran with it. The theme for this year’s light blue group was Tron: We Build a Legacy. While the hallway had little physical decoration, students depicting the theme through dance were living decorations. The dance was full of students representing the movie and the legacy they plan to leave through the art of dance.

11th grade:

The Junior Class of 2020 used “City of Stars” to represent navy blue this year. Their hallway area consisted of small-scale buildings, tap dancers, and jazz musicians. This idea carried on through the performance, as the idea was to show the progression of how a Hollywood movie is filmed.

12th grade:

The Senior Class of 2019 represented the color purple with the 80s. The hallway consisted of students dancing to 80s throwbacks and a display of records for decoration. The Senior performance consisted of various interpretations of classic 80s hits.

The day’s events concluded with Mr. Reynolds, math teacher, announcing the overall winners. For the middle school division, it was 8th grade that came out on top. For the high school division, it was 9th grade that won. Junior Creative Writer, Raquel Perry, states that after placing 2nd, “it felt good because we’ve never beat the Seniors before.” Clearly, the OCSA Color Wars are not all about winning, and more about coming together with your class to produce an event for everyone to enjoy.