FLUID MEASURE PERFORMANCE COMPANY
Projection opens with Mandel and her father watching eight-millimeter black-and-white home movies of themselves. The Mandels have a context for what they see: a newborn Donna in her father’s arms, Donna as a toddler bouncing in a swing, Donna at seven or so enthusiastically performing a “ballet” on the lawn furniture, Dad giving his daughter a peck on the cheek. The movies are interesting because they’re archetypically American–they could have been taken by anyone’s parents, mine included.
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Their relationship becomes more complicated when he shows up dancing in another movie projected–larger than life–on the back wall. He moves gracefully and knowledgeably, the image looming over his daughter, who stands in front and tries to imitate his every movement. Again, she seems to try to get his approval, only now he seems more distant. Absorbed in his own movements, locked into the film, he doesn’t even notice her.
Fluid Measure has a talent for ending on a note that makes the audience let out a surprised and satisfied “hmm.” This happened three times that night, at the close of Projection, Out of the Woods, and If You Do. These pieces have different tones and work with different ideas, but Fluid Measure members Mandel, Kathleen Maltese, and Patricia Pelletier all draw the audience into the psychology of their subjects, perform some mental and physical gymnastics there, and arrive at a surprising but somehow fitting conclusion.
If You Do, choreographed and performed by Maltese and Mandel, is an amusing study of ensemble choreography and competition. Fluid Measure often works collaboratively, creating dances out of contact improvisation. If You Do opens with Maltese and Mandel in a face-off, slowly poking each other with the intensity of duelists. This evolves into a sort of sumo-wrestling weight sharing, though neither one seems to really want to share. They break apart and dance to bouncy electric music by Lauren Weinger, each going in her own direction, looking at each other as if to say “I’m doing this. What are you doing?” They refuse to cooperate–one woman almost gets knocked down when the other swings her leg and whacks her in the chest. The piece ends when they look at each other and discover, to their horror, that they’re both lifting their legs in the same arabesque.
