Tchotchke Follies
2000
Tchotchke Follies reinterpreted some of the greatest moments of stage and screen as a puppet show for adults. This production featured a cast of salt and pepper shaker stars in elaborate miniature sets. Fluid Movement brought knick-knacks to life in moments of high drama, pathos, and comedy. The greats of early film and vaudeville were paid loving tribute… Al Jolson? Fanny Brice? The Ziegfield Girls? Yes, and more!
Tchotchke Follies was staged at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, and complimented the Tchotchkes! Treasures of the Family Museum exhibition at the museum.
Hoe-Down in Hades
Fluid Movement interpreted the classical Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as a Country-Western dance performance. The swirling chaos of Hades was recreated as a square-dance complete with rustling petticoats, tapping cowboy boots, and demon’s horns (or were those longhorns?). In the myth Orpheus, the noble Greek musician, travels to the underworld to rescue his wife Eurydice from the clutches of Pluto. Orpheus is challenged and tried at every twist and turn.
Hoe-Down in Hades was originally commissioned by the Delaware Art Museum, and was performed May 6, 2000 in Wilmington, Delaware. Hoe-Down in Hades made its Baltimore debut at the Artscape festival on July 22nd and 23rd, 2000.
Poe on Wheels: The Masque of the Red Death
Halloween 1999
Following right on the heels of our swimming success, Fluid Movement organized a Halloween show based on writing by Baltimore’s favorite morbid bard, Edgar Allen Poe. The performance was based upon The Masque of the Red Death, in which a group of decadent, wealthy people, as yet untouched by a plague spread by rats, gather for a masquerade ball to celebrate their good fortune. In the end of course, an uninvited guest spoils their fun. In this case Death arrives at Patterson Park’s Pulaski Monument on a skateboard.
Water Shorts: A Synchronized Swimming Extravaganza
Water Ballet 1999
Water Shorts! was the fruitful result of a collaboration between Fluid Movement and two local community organizations, the Fells Point Creative Alliance and the Friends of Patterson Park.
Carmen, A Hotdog Opera
Summer 1999
“I didn’t know meat could emote like that!“
Baltimore City Paper
This version of Bizet’s classic opera, Carmen, was performed on a puppet stage by elaborately dressed tofu hotdogs. The fifteen minute performance told the story of a seductive gypsy who whooed the wrong dog. After enchanting the mentally unstable Don José, Carmen fell in love with the impressive torreador, Escamillo. When Don José flew into a jealous rage, he stabbed Carmen to death with a fork as gypsies and soldiers stood by. Fluid Movement’s elaborate little performance was shown in four venues and received the City Paper’s vote for the Best Artscape Event for 1999.