My Mother Is a Fish Narrates the Love's Many Facets

Using Faulkner's words as a catalyst, My Mother is a Fish brought a unique display of student dance to the Lerner Black Box theater last weekend. The seemingly strange title phrase that grants maternal gills is exclaimed by Vardaman Bundren, a character in As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner's multi-voiced, stream-of-consciousness novel about a family's reaction to its matriarch's demise. While a similarly themed narrative ran through the March 5-9 performances, the vivid and energized show's main focus was the many manifestations of love.

My Mother is a Fish, conceived, directed, and choreographed by Carrie Green, BC '03, was the second ever MaMa Project developed by Orchesis, the University's student-run dance organization. The idea behind this initiative, which operates apart from Orchesis's semester shows, is to give choreographers the opportunity to stage and dancers the chance to perform in thematic shows organized around a central concept.

Green began work on My Mother is a Fish nearly a year ago, a fact quite clear from the performances' format and execution. The show was comprised of 23 segments with one intermission. Pieces ranged from brief theatrical moments to five-minute-long dance numbers. Each selection dealt with an aspect of love: friendship, first crush, first love, first utter disappointment. Intertwined with the dancing was a narrative about a young boy, played with poise by Guy Matthews, who was dealing with the loss of his mother.

While there was definitely a familiar choreographic line running through the pieces, they each managed to remain unique. Styles ranged from jazz to modern to ballet-inspired to hip hop. Meticulous attention was paid to ensuring that every movement matched the beat and that the costumes were color-coordinated with the music's mood; the tightly shirted and camouflaged cargo pants-clad dancers in "Get, Get, Get--Is That All There Is?" set to Missy Elliot's "Get Ur Freak On" could not have more appropriately conveyed the eroticism of a dark and sweaty club, while the repeated pastel tones in the scenes dealing with death evoked fragility and renewal. Yet perhaps the most unique garb of the evening were the outfits donned during "Love Barks," set to "Love Fool" by the Cardigans: a pastiche of T-shirts and sweat pants decorated with hearts and "I Love You" with marker and puffy paint and embellished with tulle.

The roller coaster of emotions running through both acts were well-matched musically. Green chose Philip Glass's "Video Dream" to introduce the young boy's narrative and finalized his mother's death with "Ulysse" from Cirque du Soleil. Counting Crows' "Colorblind" and Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" were used to round out the story--the boy's mother's final journey from Earth and the boy's acceptance that she's gone. The changing cycles left the viewer joyous, haunted, and hopeful.

The transition from slower to faster paced pieces was seamless, an incredible feat as the same dancers often appeared in consecutive numbers. This fluidity was achieved in part by Green's decision to incorporate costume and set changes into the pieces themselves, which helped ground the narrative.

On opening night, the cast held a Talk Back that enlightened the audience about the production process. Green created My Mother is a Fish for the Black Box. She capitalized on the diagonals afforded by the unique space. Green stressed that the show was different as viewed from each of the three sides of seating.

Co-producer and dancer Shanti Wargo, CC '03, said that sometimes performing in the Black Box can be "a little distracting" because the audience is so close. However, Wargo added that the Black Box is an amazing space that's intimate and allows performers and the audience to "feel the energy in a different way."

The effect of the lighting capability to produce an all-black space allows performers to shut out extraneous elements. "Everything just comes into focus," Julia Kelly, BC '05, said.

"With a topic as intimate as love, it's nice to be in a space [like this]," Sarabeth Berman, BC '06, said.

In one of the last few segments, a clothesline dropped from the ceiling ready to hold pictures created by students from America Reads and HRP Childcare 119th Street, both Community Impact programs. Green and some of the cast went to the schools to ask the children to express in color what they thought about love. With Mark Mothersbaugh's "Mothersbaugh Canon" from The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack playing in the background, each dancer meandered on stage with a piece of artwork. After several moments of contemplative thought, they headed upstage to the clothesline and hung the pieces. This backdrop remained for the concluding three pieces, providing another entry point to the main theme.

The finale worked as a reprisal. Choreographic and decorative elements from each of the other pieces were recalled and slightly reconfigured in "That's All There is ... Love: Everyday," set to Dave Matthews Band's "Everyday." It was an excellent summation, which Green said was designed to show how "something old can be something new."

During the Talk Back, Jonathan Sandler, CC '05, noted that in a large performance space the audience is often unable to see what goes on above a dancer's shoulders: expressions of emotion. "We give up a lot," he said.

The element most apparent throughout the show's length was the incredible energy and emotion exuded by all the dancers. The literal intimacy of My Mother is a Fish allowed viewers this rare opportunity; its figurative focus deepened the experience.

The Orchesis spring show is scheduled to go up in Lerner Hall's Roone Arledge Auditorium the first weekend in May.