Flashing color-changing lighting. Dances performed in the street. Faces lit only by candles. Homemade vibrant music videos. Traditional Indian dances. Graceful Mozart played on the piano. These are not the things that come to mind when one pictures a typical Zoom call.

Revisions, hosted by senior Briano Demb, took place on Dec. 9 through a Zoom webinar open to the public. Students from the high school had the chance to showcase their creative talents to an audience with the help of a well-organized technical crew. The performers took advantage of lighting, props, angles and setting to show the energy of their act through the screen.

Note-a-fy, one of the high school’s all-female acapella groups, took advantage of being able to record their performance ahead of time by making a music video. The music video was for the song “My Boy” by Billie Eilish and included all members wearing pajama-like clothes singing the lyrics into mock phones.

The video was an incredibly smart and effective way to make their performances meaningful, and go beyond just a typical singing performance. Each member portrayed a different aspect of the stereotypical teenage girl. For instance, while talking on the phone, some members painted their nails or twirled their hair. The music video made fun of the idea that girls spend their nights talking about boys and worrying about their looks as if they have nothing better to do.

Note-a-fy also performed the song “Bottom of The River” by Delta Rae, using lighting to portray the solemn mood of the song. All members had their lights off, creating eerily dark backgrounds, and had what appeared to be a single candle illuminating each of their faces. Dressed in either black or red, their costumes contributed to the creepy mood of the piece.

Following Note-a-fy’s performance, freshman Alexandra Oviedo used lighting and angles to help show the vibrant energy of the song “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne. Oviedo used the color changing lights on her wall to make her background look bright and exciting. She had her camera placed where the audience could see her moving to the beat of the song, further contributing to the upbeat energy. Oviedo’s full and beautiful voice captured the frustration in the lyrics of the song perfectly.

Senior Henry Brill did an amazing job of showing the mood of his dance to the song “Flame” by Tinashe, through his use of setting and costume. Brill’s large dance movements helped captivate the fast beat of the song, and at the end of the performance, Brill kneeled down on the ground and put his fist in the air.

Taking a different approach, senior Omer Kitov recited an original poem called “My Class Unmuted.” The poem emphasized the loneliness of Zoom classes due to the fact that students are always muted. It is no secret that most students keep themselves muted at all times during class, and through rawness and vulnerability, the poem successfully showed the loneliness and extra distance that creates. The poem was short, but every word was impactful to show the overall feeling of longing for the normality we all once knew.

Showcasing her culture, junior Keya Waikar performed an Indian dance while wearing a beautiful kurta pajama, an element of traditional Indian clothing. Her feet and hands moved gracefully and her inducing smile never left her face.

In this new normal of sorts, adjustments are more important than ever. People must find new ways to continue to do the things they love. This year at Revisions, the performance did just that. In a normal year, Brill would not have been able to perform outdoors, Oviedo might not have had access to that lighting and Note-a-fy probably would not have made that music video. Although adjustments are hard, the outcome can lead to new discoveries and opportunities.