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Cathy Marston
Newcastle and Zurich... | |||||||
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While other choreographers perhaps waxed and waned Cathy always seemed to deliver a goodie for Dance Bites. Having danced and choreographed in Europe for much of the 1990's she returned home last summer (2000) and, charming woman that she is, agreed to write a diary for us with hardly any arm twisting whatsoever!
Link to previous column.
Link to later column
Northern Youth Dance Company I’m writing this month’s diary from the offices of Dancecity, the National Dance Agency for the North of England based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I was actually born here - although my family moved when I was very young - and for the last two weeks I’ve become re-acquainted with the place, while creating a new work for the Northern Youth Dance Company. Today’s my last day, and I’ve got all my bags squashed around me... I’d had to laugh at myself as I stumbled along to the studios this morning, laden with a huge wheely suitcase, a back-pack and my laptop-briefcase; quite an odd look for a choreographer really: somewhere between ‘executive woman’ and ‘mountain ranger’, with luggage probably amounting to more than twice my weight! The Northern Youth Dance Company is a new group of twelve dancers, all aged between sixteen and twenty-four. Although they have a range of experience in dance, none are yet at full-time dance colleges. Most have experience in either contemporary or street dance - very little ballet - so I think they’ve had quite a shock with me the last fortnight! Not that I do ‘ballet’ with them - that would be very difficult - but my approach is influenced by my background, and it’s been very interesting to see and hear their response. Unlike many of the young dancers with whom I’ve worked this year, who have been primarily classically trained, these students are used to being given ‘tasks’: going away and creating movement material for themselves. The choreographer then arranges the material and manipulates it to suit their vision of the piece. I have rarely worked in this way; occasionally I use improvisation as a creative device, but more often than not I bring the initial vocabulary to the work, which sometimes mutates as each dancers makes it belong to him or her. I would be interested to investigate work with dancers who can generate their own language through impulses from me, but I would like a lot more time to experiment, preferably with very experienced dancers with whom I can be sure of sensitive communication. I might have tried this style of creation with the NYDC if I felt they were not able to pick up my sort of steps, but rather, I thought the challenge would benefit their experience of dance and give them a different and refreshing perspective. So, we’ve created a fifteen-minute piece called ‘Adrenalin Blush’ to fantastically lively and rhythmic music by John Williams. It’s made in four parts, revealing the youthful vigour and personality of the company of four girls and two boys for whom it’s created. They’ve found it very hard - getting mixed up with the rhythms and what they describe as ‘smalls fiddly things’ I’ve been throwing at them - but it’s been rewarding to see the improvement and hear them say how much they are looking forward to performing it. Like Chinese whispers, my vocabulary of dance has extended their own, and they say it will influence their own creations for the A Levels and degrees in dance, which many are taking. The SiWiC... I can’t actually tell you what the above title stands for; basically it’s a choreographic course that’s held in Zurich every summer. Seven choreographers are chosen to participate from the many who apply, and they’re given twenty professional dancers on whom to experiment for two weeks, under the guidance of a more experienced choreographer. I took part last year as a dancer and enjoyed all aspects; I always find that one of the most important aspects of these projects is meeting people and discussing ideas: hearing different perspectives. Last year the director was Nils Christie; this year it was supposed to be Lloyd Newson, which was initially why I was so keen to go again. Unfortunately though, he pulled out just before the course started: differences of opinions with the organisers, or something like that... Anyway, Nils was brought in to lead again. This was not quite as novel for me, having worked with him previously, but of course the other participating choreographers were different and some were very interesting. I particularly enjoyed working with a Finnish guy called Jyrki Karttunen: he made a really fun trio in which I was one of three sailors on board the Titanic. I couldn’t do justice to his ideas or language of movement if I tried to describe it here, but I know he’s going to make an evening piece based on this work with his company in Finland, so if you’re around that part of the world this year look out for it!
So that’s all for this month I think; fairly non-hectic in comparison to the last half-year, but it is summer after all! I’m now on a train back to London where I have two days to pack my bags and then leave for Kent, where I am participating on another choreographic course: the PAL Dance LAB. Watch this space for my report back next month; meanwhile, I’ll see if I can bear to lose a leotard or two from my luggage, and travel in style this time...
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