Swimmer Expectations and Information

QUICK NOTE

Swimming in the water ballet is super fun (at least we strive to make it as fun as possible), but it does require a sizable commitment. Fluid Movement is a community, and the water ballet is a true community theater production! Fluid Movement swimmers don’t just swim in the show; they also help make the show happen. This can be by pitching in to help make their scene’s costumes, props, and sometimes choreography, help with set builds/painting/decorating. We also have to set up/break down our stage and seating elements on show day, so that our neighbors can enjoy the city’s pool with as little interference from us as possible. Theatrical productions like the water ballet take a lot of time, work, and love by the leadership team as well as all our performers to make a show that we’re all proud to show to our friends, families, and community members. We hope swimmers see participating in the water ballet as a community-building and rewarding experience.

Code of Conduct

Fluid Movement does require all participants in the water ballet to uphold a Code of Conduct to make sure that we continue to foster a safe and accepting environment for our volunteers. A copy of the code of conduct can be found here for review. Additionally, Fluid Movement’s Board of Directors closely monitors an incident report form that can be used by anybody to report behavior they believe has violated the Code of Conduct.

OVERVIEW OF THE SHOW

The swimming portions of the water ballet are what we call our “scenes”. Typically, these scenes consist of four “adult” scenes (ages 14+) and one FM Junior scene (ages 9-14 or whenever they feel ready to move into an “adult” scene). These scenes usually tell a part of the larger overall show theme/narrative. Our shows generally culminate with us all getting in the pool together in what we call “The Finale” aka an exuberant spectacle of people and costumes and joy.

The swimming portions of the show are typically interspersed with land acting bits that tell a story, smooth transitions, or revel in the vibes of the show. If you want to act in the water ballet, see our Open Roles for information on how to apply.

Each show is different though, so be willing to stay fluid!

Specifics related to adult scenes is below followed by Fluid Movement Junior scene information.

JUMP TO FM JUNIOR SECTIONS

ADULT SCENE INFORMATION

TL;DR*: Signing up to be in the water ballet is signing up to help put on a community theater production! This means showing up for rehearsals, helping your swimming scene directors, being respectful to your fellow volunteers, and working with everyone in the show to set up/break down our stage and seating elements each show day.

^{*Too Long; Didn’t Read}

SIGN-UPS TO SWIM

Fluid Movement proudly does not require auditions to participate in the water ballet. As such, we are a first-come organization where people interested in swimming in the water ballet in an adult scene must attend sign-ups. Sign-ups are like a hilarious career fair, where the jobs being offered are synchronized swimming scenes. Each scene that is available to sign-up for will have specific directors that present their scene’s music, costuming, mood, vision, etc. behind a folding table in a park sometimes in costume. It’s glorious!

Sign-ups generally occur in late April or early May on a weeknight evening; however, the specific time and location will be posted to our website and socials in March or April and sent out in Fluid Movement’s newsletter.

People interested in participating will have the option to sign-up for whichever scene they’d like typically by providing their name and contact information. That’s it! Then you show up to rehearsals (more on that below), and you’re in the water ballet!

Fluid Movement has steadily been growing, and we may not be able to accommodate everyone interested in swimming in the water ballet. Though we wish we could take everyone, our directors are all volunteers giving their free time to make costumes, props, choreography, etc. - and we also just can only fit so many people in some of our rehearsal pools. Once spots fill up at sign-ups, you can be added to a waitlist, but we do recommend being on time or early to sign-ups if you want to swim in the water ballet.

More information on sign-ups can be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

REHEARSALS

Each “adult” scene rehearses twice a week beginning the first week of June and continuing through the end of July. Rehearsals typically take place from 5:30-7 PM on Mondays through Thursdays. The exact rehearsal schedule each year is based on availability of the pools.

Since it’s hard to get in sync in the pool without everyone together in the pool, swimmers are asked to miss no more than THREE rehearsals total.

Each scene in the water ballet will be assigned a specific pool in Baltimore City for rehearsals with a specific rehearsal schedule. Typical rehearsal pools are Druid Hill Park Pool, Roosevelt Park Pool, Clifton Park Pool, and Riverside Park Pool; however, we have also had scenes rehearse at Cherry Hill Splash Park as well as occasionally indoor pools.

An example rehearsal schedule would be Clifton Park Pool from 5:30-7 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Specific details on rehearsal schedules and pools will be announced along with sign up information on our socials and on the Fluid Movement newsletter.

Since the pools typically don’t open until later in June, the first couple of weeks of rehearsals happen on land near the pool locations. These locations will be communicated to you after sign-ups by your scene directors.

Rehearsals sometimes have to be canceled for inclement weather, pool issues/maintenance, or safety concerns. These cancellations will be announced by your scene directors.

More information on rehearsals can be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

BEHIND THE SCENE VOLUNTEERING

2025 will be the first year that Fluid Movement tries out a department system for making the show’s costume elements, props, and the set. Each department will have designated leads with days and times for builds to happen at Fluid Movement’s World Headquarters (303 West Monument Street).

Swimmers will be expected to attend at least two department builds. One of these builds must be with costumes as we need to fit all the swimmers in their costumes. More information on builds will be forthcoming as soon as we can solidify those schedules and expectations. If you are already interested in volunteering for a specific department, you can let us know by filling out this form.

TECH DAY/TECH WEEK

Tech Day is a very long day, but it’s also a super exciting day as it’s the first time that we get to run the show from the beginning through the end with actors and microphones and speakers (oh my!). Tech Day tends to occur from approximately 10 AM - 5:30 PM on the Saturday before the first show (typically the second to last Saturday in July).

Since many of the scenes do not rehearse in our show pools, each scene gets time to re-block their number in the new pool, and then we run the entire show from the beginning aka “the top.” A lot of people have downtime during Tech Day, but something is happening every minute of that time, and it is important that all swimmers are in attendance at Tech Day.

In addition to rehearsing their scene in the pool, Tech Day is the first day that swimmers learn our finale number. Since this number involves people from every scene, it’s a fun way to start off Tech and get to know people from another scene. Tech Day begins by rehearsing our finale on land.

We also have to take care of some business at Tech Day for our sets and tech equipment, which involves load out from Fluid Movement’s Headquarters aka putting everything we need for the shows into a UHaul, and then unloading that UHaul at the pool on Tech Day.

After Tech Day, we will have two to three additional rehearsals on weeknights leading up to the first show (aka Tech Week), so everyone can feel amazing going into the first show. These rehearsals typically happen at the usual rehearsal time (5:30-7 PM) and are an opportunity for us to really rehearse the entire show instead of just individual scenes.

After the first weekend of shows, we change to a whole new pool. As such, there will be additional rehearsals between the first and second weekend of shows to allow our swimmers to reacclimate to the new pool and if there is a “night show” (9 PM or later show), rehearse for the first time in the dark.

Attendance at Tech Day is required, and attendance at the additional rehearsals is heavily encouraged and might be required by your scene’s directors.

SHOWTIME, BABY!

Finally, it’s showtime!! The thing we’ve been rehearsing for all summer! Typically, the big shows occur on the last weekend in July and the first weekend in August, usually with eight or nine shows over the course of two weekends.

A typical show schedule is

Saturday, last weekend in July - 5 and 7 PM, call time at 1 PM
Sunday, last weekend in July - 5 and 7 PM, call time at 2 PM
Saturday, first weekend in August - 5 and 7 PM, call time at 1 PM
Sunday, first weekend in August - 5 and 7 PM, call time at 2 PM

Please note, that this schedule is subject to change based on pool availability and safety considerations and has in year’s past included “night shows” at 9 PM, including Friday night shows.

Call times are at the time they are because there is SO MUCH that we have to do to get the pool and ourselves ready for our audiences! We understand that show days can be long and exhausting but also uplifting and a true opportunity to be a part of a community and a community theater production.

CAST JOBS AND SET UP/BREAK DOWN

You know, all those things we have to do to get the pool ready for our audience? Well, our swimmers are expected to chip in to make all this happen in time for your friends and families to see this majestic thing we’ve been working on!

We know setting up/breaking down our stage and seating elements is not everyone’s favorite part of being a Fluid Movement water ballet, but it is absolutely necessary for us to have a show. This is because the pools we perform in are open to the public between each day of our shows, and we want to be not just good community members and impact our city’s pool resources as little as possible.

Cast jobs vary from setting up tents, filling water bags to hold down our tents, moving bleachers and chairs, putting up set elements, running cord for our tech, hanging privacy curtains for backstage, tetris-ing all our things into and out of storage PODS, just moving things from one place to another place, and making sure our cast has yummy snacks backstage.

Sign-ups for specific cast jobs will be sent out in advance of Tech Day along with a literal plea to help us with load-out at Fluid Movement Headquarters on the morning of Tech Day.

Considerations are always made for different abilities to help setting up/breaking down, but the more people chip in, the easier this task is, and it is expected for all people participating in Fluid Movement show to help out with set up and break down in some way.

EXPECTATIONS CLOSING STATEMENT

We don’t want anything we’ve said here to scare anyone from being in the water ballet, but we do want our participants to know the commitment level of swimming in the water ballet. Swimming in the water ballet can be super joyful, but unfortunately, shows take quite a bit of doings to make them happen. And like a true community, we try to share the joyous parts as well as chip in on the hard stuff together. So please consider the requirements above prior to signing-up to swim in the water ballet.

If you want to be in the water ballet but you need special accommodations, please reach out to volunteers@fluidmovement.org.

Fluid Movement Junior Scene Information

SIGN-UPS AND REHEARSALS

Fluid Movement Junior is for kids aged approximately 9 to 14 that are strong swimmers that want to be a part of the show! We are not in the practice of kicking a participant of Fluid Movement Junior out due to their age, so if your child is 15+ and wants to swim in Fluid Movement Junior, they are welcome.

Junior scenes are very similar to “adult” scenes but just with younger people. The Junior scene has directors that create costumes, props, choreography, etc. and is as much a part of the show as any of the adult scenes.

Fluid Movement Junior typically rehearses on Mondays through Thursdays (4 days a week) for 90 minutes in the late morning or early afternoon for two weeks in July, leading up to Tech Day. Typically, these rehearsals take place on the second or third week of July.

Attending sign-ups is not required for FM Juniors. Instead, FM Junior sign-ups happen online.

Specifics about Junior rehearsals and sign-up information will be posted to our socials and in the newsletter as soon as we can secure this information with BCRP. To sign up for our newsletter please go here.

Since rehearsal time is limited, attendance at all rehearsals is expected to participate in Fluid Movement Junior.

TECH DAY/TECH WEEK

Tech Day is a very long day, but it’s also a super exciting day as it’s the first time that we get to run the show from the beginning through the end. It is called Tech Day because it is also the first day that we run our sound and have actors on mics.

Tech Day tends to occur from approximately 10 AM - 5:30 PM on the Saturday before the first show (typically the second to last Saturday in July), and Fluid Movement Junior participants are expected to attend Tech Day; however, they will receive a much later call time than the “adult” scene participants (typically noon or later).

After Tech Day, we will have two to three additional rehearsals on weeknights leading up to the first show, so everyone can feel amazing going into the first show. These rehearsals typically happen at the usual rehearsal time (5:30-7 PM) and are an opportunity for us to really rehearse the entire show instead of just individual scenes. Typically, our Juniors are only expected to attend some of these extra rehearsals, and those times will be communicated as soon as possible by the Junior’s directors.

After the first weekend of shows, we change to a whole new pool. As such, there will be additional rehearsals between the first and second weekend of shows to allow our swimmers to reacclimate to the new pool and if there is a night show, rehearse for the first time in the dark. Again, these rehearsal times will be communicated as soon as possible.

SHOWTIME, BABY!

A typical show schedule is

Saturday, last weekend in July - 5 and 7 PM
Sunday, last weekend in July - 5 and 7 PM
Saturday, first weekend in August - 5 and 7 PM
Sunday, first weekend in August - 5 and 7 PM

Please note, that this schedule is subject to change based on pool availability and safety considerations.

Participants in the “adult” scenes will typically be showing up by 1 or 2 PM; however, Juniors will have a later call time than adults (typically 2 or 3 PM). Show days are long and exhausting but also uplifting and a true opportunity to be a part of a community and a community theater production!

If you have a child in your life that wants to be in the water ballet but needs special accommodations, please reach out to volunteers@fluidmovement.org.