Synchronized swimmers transform public pools
The deep end at Druid Hill Park Pool became a stage Saturday night, filled with about 80 synchronized swimmers covered in glitter, paint, neon gauntlets and recycled trash — not one of them ever touching the bottom.
Fluid Movement, a Baltimore-based performing arts group known for its water ballet, roller-skating musicals and disco workouts, put on a water ballet at the public pool to raise awareness about city aquatics.
The nonprofit plans to put on its 15th annual production, called “Science Fair,” at the Druid Hill Park and Patterson Park pools several times over this week.
“A lot of folks in Baltimore don’t realize that [the pools] are there. They don’t come to these pools. They don’t see how beautiful they are, so we’re trying to bring more people,” said the show’s producer, Valarie Perez-Schere. “Artists can kind of do that.”
Perez-Schere, 43, helped found Fluid Movement in 1999, turning young and old, often inexperienced and even some pregnant residents into synchronized swimmers.
The water ballet features scenes based on middle school science projects, exploring how energy is generated from wind and solar, what it would take to grow plants on Mars and one of the Inner Harbor’s biggest cleanup efforts — Mr. Trash Wheel.
The show pays homage to the solarand water-powered water wheel, which collected 19 tons of trash in one day in April of last year and 55,000 cigarette butts over a six-month period, according to city officials.
Suzanne Lebovit, the oldest swimmer, last tried synchronized swimming in college at the University of Maryland. She quit back then because of illness and didn’t join Fluid Movement until four years ago.
“The first year, I struggled. The second year, everything was cool,” Lebovit said.
“To be goddamn 73 years old, and I can still do it, is rewarding,” she said. Fluid Movement will put on its 15th annual production, called “Science Fair,” at Druid Hill Park Pool, 800 Wyman Park Drive, at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. today. More performances will be held at Patterson Park Pool, 148 S. Linwood Ave., at 9 p.m. Friday; 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday; and 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Aug. 7. Tickets are $10. For more information, visit www.fluidmovement.org.