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Cathy Marston
'Painting, decorating 'n steps...' | |||||||
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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
Marston diary index Oh dear... this should be a really thorough diary since I haven't written in about three months... but I'm actually in a big mess at the moment as I've just bought my first flat (hugely exciting) and am moving this weekend... Betty Anderton christened me Countess Catherine from Catford today - yes, I am now busy plugging the southeast and Catford in particular as the new groovy and arty-farty area of London!
Seems like ages ago now, and I can't even remember if I've mentioned working with ENB in my last diary; anyway, it was definitely a highlight of my spring mania. I had a wonderful time with the company - my two casts were not only the beautiful dancers you'd expect but also leapt into a new style with an eagerness that was quite touching. They were energetic and passionate - qualities that allowed me to work in a challenging way for all of us. The result, Facing Viv, was a twenty-minute piece - essentially three duets - based on different aspects of T S Eliot’s relationship with his first wife, Vivienne.
Cindy Jourdain in Cathy Marston's Facing Viv Photograph by Asya Verzhbinsky
Three weeks after my ENB premiere I had another first night looming up to panic about - my adaptation of L.P Hartley’s The Go-Between, which I called Between Shadows. Although Facing Viv looked at characters and relationships, this piece was going a step further and actually attempting to trace a narrative thread, touching at set points along the way. Tricky. You take it for granted but this is a hard thing to do. In my preparation, I'd made a very clear structure on paper, and choreographed sections with the dancers that would ‘colour in’ this outline. It was only in the last week that I could actually link all of these parts together - along with rehearsing three replacement dancers... don't ask! In retrospect, I think this particular story needed more than half an hour to do it justice; when I could finally sit back and watch what I'd made I felt that actually, I could have spent that time looking at any one of the four/five primary relationships in the piece. Having said that, I can't stand getting bored while watching dance, and I felt that the piece moved along at a pace that kept the audience attentive and challenged. Afterwards, several people compared it to work by Ashton - which I found very surprising; superficially there are similarities - the costumes, period and subject matter perhaps - but choreographically I felt it was in another area entirely... admittedly somewhat more classical than I've touched on recently - I think that derives from the period and costumes - but I'm still disinclined to agree. I was generally happy with the movement, and the performances were a joy as always. I was very happy to present Lauren Cuthbertson in her first ‘role’. She replaced Gillie Revie at the last minute and I have to say that having seen what she achieved in two weeks, at the age of seventeen, after three months in The Company I think we have a lot to look forward to.
Quickly to summarize: I performed in Liv Lorant’s Jerwood Award choreography in London and Newcastle... yes - I admit that I still enjoy performing quite a bit - don't think I'm gonna stop quite yet. I choreographed a little ‘number’ for first year girls at Central School of Ballet for their school performance - coming up soon at the Bloomsbury. I choreographed another little dance for students at the London College of Dance.
Ummm...I think that’s about it - apart from becoming a painting and decorating wizard! Still haven't attacked the jungle of my garden though so I guess I'll be pretty busy over the summer!
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