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Anybody who saw the Royal Ballet Dance Bites tours (reviews link) will probably remember Cathy Marston's work - its invention and freshness particularly.
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
I think it’s two months since I last wrote…that means a lot has happened, and unfortunately I don’t have much time to write about any of it this week! So briefly…
ROH Associate Artist
I guess one of the significant things that have happened is that I’ve been made Associate Artist of The Royal Opera House. As I’m the first one, we’re still sorting out exactly what that means, but basically I will be working regularly in the studio theatres of the ROH and collaborating with various departments of the House in the future…I’m sure it will all become clear sooner or later but I’m happy finally to have a ‘title’ instead of just being the welcome gatecrasher that I’ve been the last two years!
At the moment I’m working on three different ballets – and it’s chaos!
Sophie’s Choice
Two of them are for the evening presentation in the Linbury Studio Theatre on the 11th/12th January. As I mentioned last time – they are both based on William Styron’s novel, Sophie’s Choice. One will be a duet, danced by Antonia Francheski and Karl Sullivan, with projections by Terry Braun, design by Jon Bausor, music by Jules Maxwell and lighting by Simon Benison. As you’re probably guessing from that long list of collaborators, the piece will incorporate many different elements, layers and forms to build a study of Styron’s character, Sophie. It’s half an hour in length and quite scary for me in as much that it’s the most ambitious and intricate piece I’ve attempted so far! We’re using film to tell our story with the live action; dancers will move with ghosts of themselves, remember events from their past and dream about their future….I’m not going even to try to explain more at this stage but I believe tickets are going on sale soon so please book early!
In case you still needed convincing, the other piece of the evening will be danced to Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin. The dancers are all from the Royal Ballet and although I don’t want to tempt fate by letting the casting go out already (you may remember I always seem to have dancers go off at the last minute…) I can say that they are some of my ‘usual crew’ plus a few newcomers, and are all looking fantastic!!
A Summer’s Day
The third piece I’m creating at the moment is for The Royal Ballet School. It’s a ‘fresh’ set of dances to Prokofiev’s ‘A Summer’s Day’. I’m really enjoying working at the school; almost ten years since I left, it’s quite a novelty going into Barons Court and I am very impressed with the students. I’m working on the Second Years at the Upper School and the great thing is that there are equal numbers of girls and boys! My piece will be for four couples; I haven’t cast it yet but am having big rehearsals where everyone is pitching in, offering ideas and trying to accomplish the impossible ‘visions’ I describe!
Dance and opera...
Apart from all of the above, I danced in Turandot at the Opera House in September and October. Although I was interested to see how the Opera Company operates, I didn’t expect to enjoy the experience as much as I did. I’m not particularly an opera fan, but I began to love the music; such care was taken over every aspect of the production that I felt very privileged to dance on stage with such a rich sound and wonderful atmosphere all around me. It’s really made me interested in working with opera more – perhaps as a choreographer someday if the right opportunity came up.
So that’s what’s been going on. In two weeks I will be twenty-seven…not sure how much longer I’ll be classed as a ‘young choreographer’ but hey – still three years away from thirty! I join the Arc Dance Company too this month, which I’m really looking forward to….that and more Sophie will be reported on next time!
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