The Blacklight Rally featured new and old groups this year. Cultural dance groups Krew and Bhangra have been participants in previous Blacklight Rallies, but a new unnamed band performed for the first time in a rally. In addition, there were routines from the Cheer team, the Equestriettes, a staff v. students glow-in-the-dark basketball game, a battle of the classes bowling game and the crowning of the Canned Food Drive winners.

This year’s theme was Mad Scientist. Senior Yannik Omictin acted as the mad scientist who stole donated cans. In the end, the scientist ended up returning the cans because he morally could not steal from the needy.

“[We] started planning [for the Winter Rally] as soon as Homecoming finished because there are performers that are not part of our core curricular groups that are allowed to perform in this rally. And so we [needed] to have tryouts,” Activities Director Sara Frausto said.

The next rally that allows auditioned groups to perform is the Farewell Rally in May, Frausto said.

The Krew team performed an upbeat dance number to K-pop songs, glowing against the blacklight in their white hoodies. Bhangra danced in a high energy routine to a mix of Indian and western music. The rock band performed a Jimi Hendrix song. Members include junior Roni Lapede as the singer, junior Eran Naveh on guitar, senior Thomas Swail on bass and senior Sean Bigger on drums.  

“The rock band is a new, up-and-coming band with a drum set and guitars and that whole deal.  We’ve never done it in a rally before so we [were] really excited,” Rally Commissioner Tej Gokhale said.

The Cheer team opened the rally by dancing to Christmas music in white shirts with fluorescent paint on their faces. The team had another dance planned, but it was not approved by admin and was not performed, senior captain Madie Tsao said.

The Equestriettes dance team changed it up this year, incorporating their entire team into the rally. Dancers held flashing green lights in their hands while dancing in all black uniforms.

“Playing off the lights and is going be fun for the student body,” senior dance team member Katy Moylan said.

The Students v. Staff basketball game involved students and staff who volunteered to play. Students won with a score of 12 to 7. Seniors Elizabeth Cook, Sandy Hu, Emi Kong and Hamza Allam constituted part of the team that brought student victory to this year’s annual game. PE teacher Mr. Wishart was a star player of the staff team, senior Ciara Barros said.

There was also a bowling game between the seniors and freshmen v. the juniors and sophomores, ending in the senior-freshmen team winning.

The rally included the announcement of the Canned Food Drive winners. This year, English teacher Liz Williams took home both most generous class award and most generous students award

The next rally is the Battle of the Classes rally in March. This is one of the biggest rallies on campus, Frausto said.