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Cathy Marston
'GPD, ROH...' | |||||||
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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 Hello again! I've been back in London for three days now and it feels great! In case you missed my last diary three months ago, I've been in Austria, with a few trips to Italy and Switzerland, since the end of May, dancing in West Side Story at the Bregenz Festival. Well...it was an experience; I don't know where to start – or if I should even try! Suffice to say that Tom Sapsford and I have been wonderful flatmates again – ten years after we shared at school - but this time half way up a mountain - literally, going down town every night to strut our stuff as 'Jets' on a stage that 'floated' on the waters of Lake Constance, raked in three directions, made entirely of glass and metal that would crack and break every so often so you'd get a stage hand running on mid-show to replace a floor panel! There were 150 other performers including a Russian Chorus miked beneath the stage so all we had to do was 'lip-synch'! The show was choreographed by Richard Wherlock – an ex-director of mine – who was lovely as ever, and many of the dancers were ex-colleagues, so it was all a bit of a re-union with lots of new people to make friends with too. Lots of parties, lots of time to lie in the sun reading and researching future projects – sounds perfect; but by the last fortnight I can confirm there was a great deal of time to feel bored and rather claustrophobic between the mountains too. Yes – I was ready to come home! So on to the present and future....This week I'm choreographing for George Piper Dances. They rang while I was away and somehow I've squeezed it in as the prospect of making a duet for Oxana and Monica was too tempting to forgo. The piece will premiere at the Sadlers Wells on the 23rd Sept. It's a very feminine sort of a thing – to John Cage's Six Melodies for violin and harp and will have designs by Jon Bausor. So far, I've been working for two days on it and don't want to give much more away at this stage - but must say that those two girls are just so beautiful... ! Next week I go back to the Opera House to start working on my evening in the Linbury on the 2/3/4 Oct. It's going to include revivals of Traces (the one with Yann Tierson music and nine dancers who go through a patchwork of adolescent relationships in lots of squares of light...jog any memories? I think it's still Bruce's favourite!) and Unstrung Tension (five dancers and a cellist – music by Carl Vine, created for Outside In 2); plus a new piece called Broken Fiction for Johannes Stepanek and Kristin McNerny with the music group Between The Notes playing Dave Meric's score live. Designs for this will be by Anthony Lamble – who designed Facing Viv, and Simon Bennison is lighting the whole evening. It's going to be quite a task to get these three pieces on but with the cast I've got I shouldn't worry – they're the best...
So that's what's going on for me... I promised Bruce I'd write a long diary after missing three months but life moves much slower in the mountains – especially in heat above 30 degrees – so I don't have a lot of news. Oh, almost forgot – for the first time in my life I'm holding an audition; it's for my Tempest project next January. I've had around 300 applications – which amazed me – I couldn't believe there were so many freelance dancers around. On Sunday I'll work with about fifty of them...I will probably be more scared than anyone else so wish me luck and I will report back again soon - promise!
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