This prom may not be entirely traditional, but the best part -- for the young women, anyway --is still just getting all dressed up.

The statewide Annual Homeschool Prom was held in Payson on Saturday night at the historic Peteetneet Academy.

Sisters Megan Parish, 17, and Trisha Parish, 14, of Spanish Fork, spent three hours prior to the dance doing their hair and makeup with nine friends at the family's kitchen table. Two back-to-back full-length mirrors were laid out horizontally on the table, with another mirror on a decorative easel. Girls stood sometimes three deep curling and spraying each other's locks.

The girls harmonized to Phantom of the Opera, hitting the high notes as they applied makeup.

"I actually think the funnest part is getting together before, and then you go to the dance," Megan said.

Megan and Amber's 11-year-old sister, Nicky, watched the older girls at work. She too had her hair done to the nines.

"She's dreaming," said Nicky's mother, Amber Parish, with a wistful smile.

At the Payson dance hall, the prom started with a prayer at 7:30 p.m. Following the prayer, organizers asked students to come to the center of the dance floor to learn a line dance. The ballroom was decorated to match the "Sunset on the Nile" theme, with gold arches and a large mural of the pyramids.

This prom is not just unusual because it is only for homeschoolers and begins with a prayer. For starters, it's not a date dance.

"You can dance with anybody, and it's not just one person," Megan said. "They have really fun music, and it is uplifting and the lights are not too dark, which is good. There are good words (to the music), and it's not too loud."

Returning to an old-fashioned tradition, the young men are given a dance card and are encouraged to fill it.

"Everyone 14 and up can go, and you don't need a date," said Amber Parish as her daughters prepared for the dance. "It's a regular dance, but it's formal so it gives the girls a chance to dress up fancy and have fun."

Parish said she decided to switch to home schooling several years ago, partly because she discovered that there was a social network that could provide prom and other community opportunities to her children.

"It's a very real thing," she said. "I did not want to homeschool in a box. We wanted to be involved in the community."

The dance was started eight years ago by the Hopkins family of Spanish Fork, which owns a homeschool bookstore in Salem and nationwide catalog sales company. About 200 attend the homeschool prom each year.

"With homeschoolers, we all want to get together and dance," said organizer Emily Hopkins. "We share similar backgrounds and standards and this has been a fun tradition."

Carefully selected music, both old and modern, is an important part of the experience, she said.

"It is good lyrics, and it is highly screened," she said. "We have a lot of formal dances and fun modern songs and fun old songs."

The no-date policy is designed to encourage social mixing, she said.

"It's more fun when you get to dance with everybody," she said.