Stories: Social Butterflies

Every Friday night in the small town of Collinsville, Ill. junior high students flock to a plain brick building at the end of the town’s aging Main Street. Since 1955, the Tepee Center has eased thousands of Collinsville area youth into their high school years, providing a place for supervised yet unstructured lessons in socialization. The building has two levels: a dance floor, with strobe lights and a DJ, is on the upper level; pool tables, air hockey and a snack bar occupy the lower level. It is here that young teens learn to socialize, flirt and date with minimal involvement from the adults.

Early in the night opposite sexes stand separately as Alyssa Miller, 14, center, laughs with a group of her girl friends and a group of boys talk nearby in the basement of Tepee. Later in the night the two groups come together, talk and dance after the initial hesitation wears off.
  
Demeion Collins, left, 13, and Darnell Brown, 14, play fight outside the doors of Tepee before joining their friends inside.
   
Katie Nogel, 13, left, and Chiara Santangelo, 12, dance to a pop song on the dance floor.
     
  
At just over five feet, Corey Williams, 14, like most of his male counterparts, is noticeably shorter than most of the girls at Tepee, a testament to the awkwardness of this time in a teen's life.
   
Questions can sometimes be answered with a look as Dallas Feltman, 13, asks Bailey Frisk, 14, about the next slow dance.
  
A group of friends sit together as they spend the night enjoying each other’s company. Tepee allows students from schools all across the district to meet and interact. Many teens dress to express themselves while searching for their own identity and social group.
     
  
For many teens, their first relationships start at Tepee as they are allowed to interact with the opposite sex in a way they are not in school. Slow dances separate those looking for romance with those more interested in platonic relationships with friends.
   
Too young to drive, Audrey Whittaker, 12, moves in for kiss with her boyfriend Alex Ferguson, 13, before searching the parking lot around Tepee for their awaiting parents as another Friday night comes to end.