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Cathy Marston
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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.
Marston diary index Oh dear…I don't think I have the writing skills to relate the very humorous day I've had - at least in a way which would do it justice…I'm currently in my 'full-on-create-the-piece-time' at ENB. I'm also working at Royal in the evenings - despite careful planning to avoid this busy situation; it's necessary as we're behind schedule due to injuries and whatnot. So yesterday, I ended up choreographing for eight hours non-stop. It was actually great - I was absolutely exhausted by nine that evening but every hour spent had been productive and I was in love with all my dancers - at ENB and Royal. I had a bit of a sore throat from enthusing throughout the day but only what you'd expect; I certainly didn't think I'd wake up today with no more than a whisper and the occasionally seal-like squeak! Thankfully today has been a little lighter - five hours as opposed to eight; by six I was sounding like Barry White, which was good for a laugh at the end of a long rehearsal!
'Facing Viv' - my piece for ENB - is going really well; it's so nice to work with dancers - and very good ones - during scheduled rehearsal time: you can push things in a way that's impossible in the evenings and also create much faster. The time I've been given to create the piece is slim - two weeks - but I squeezed in about twelve hours here and there in the last month, which doesn't sound like much but has made a huge difference. I think I'll have it all mapped out by Saturday, which will give us a week to make it 'performable!'
Despite difficulties with injuries - one that has meant replacing a dancer - my next Clore piece is going well too. I now have a score that's pretty much complete - which we all like - and the dancers are gorgeous as ever. What can I say? It gets repetitive if I keep being enthusiastic but I'm just loving being a choreographer at the moment!
Ballet Central is out on tour now. I was with them in Ilford to put the show on - very stressful, just because they do such a mixed programme and it all has to be lit and staged in a day. Still they're off, and Antonio - their Director - tells me they're doing very well - I suppose he would really! He mumbled something in the next breath about how he'd made a different version for the smaller stage and also how the casts had been swapped around to versions I'd never thought of - let alone mentioned - but well, he's the one on the scene and there was little more than a moment's hesitation before I said 'great' and mentally handed over my baby! They'll be in the Linbury in just over a week so I look forward to seeing how the dancers and the ballet have come on.
I was a dancer for a week again this month; it was physically painful but very interesting and inspiring to work with another choreographer - Liv Lorant - and different dancers. Actually, one evening during the period I was working with her, I had been asked to talk to the Ballet Independents Groups on the subject of women in dance. I have to admit I felt a bit out of my depth - there was a lot of intellectual discussion going on - but it did provide interesting lunchtime chats with Liv. I realised she's actually the first female choreographer/director I have worked with - and a quick count of choreographers with whom I have experience came to about twenty-five…I'm not going to get into all that now but it did make me consider things for a moment.
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