An interview with Cathy from the Independent (found via the FT site).

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<small>[ 12 March 2003, 02:46 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

<BR><small>Cathy dancing with the Henri Oguike Dance Company. Photo Chris Nash from <A HREF="http://www.diquero.fsnet.co.uk/" TARGET=_blank>Cathy's website</A></small><P>The article makes a good read and in the paper edition of The Indie has a lovely, big piccie of Cathy. One point of clarification - at one place there is a juxtaposition of the phrase 'bad choreography' just after a reference to the Henri Oguike Dance Company. I think it's clear from some discussion further on that Cathy didn't intend these two phrases to be linked, but for the avoidance of dance, Cathy has assured me that there was no intention to criticise Henri Oguike's choreography.<P>For those who would like to read more about Cathy, there is much to enjoy in <A HREF="http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_02/apr02/cathy_marston_11.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>Cathy's diary on ballet.co</B></A><BR><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited April 16, 2002).]

Dancer, choreographer, Royal Opera House artist. At just 27, Cathy Marston is ruling the roost
Interview by Jenny Gilbert for The Independent

When you turn up to interview the Royal Opera House's first ever Associate Artist, a choreographer whose CV is long on Royal Ballet premieres and whose diary is stuffed with dates for showing her work elsewhere, it's slightly odd to find her hurling herself around a studio at another choreographer's bidding.

Yet Cathy Marston, 27, is that rare bird: a high-flyer who refuses to abandon her home territory. And her reasoning is unassailable. She trained as a dancer (Royal Ballet Upper School), has always worked as a dancer (classical companies in Zurich and Lucerne), and says she feels like a dancer (she certainly looks like one). Besides, she says, she's not so arrogant as to believe there aren't lessons she can learn from a mature experimenter in stage narrative such as Kim Brandstrup.

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Cathy Marston
Interviewed by Lorna Sanders for Dancing Times

Cathy Marston explains: “I was always drawn to choreography. I danced around as a child and made up dances.” She studied at the King Slocombe School of Dance in Cambridge and joined the Royal Ballet Upper School at 16, attending choreography classes taught by Norman Morrice and David Drew. Involvement in Christopher Hampson’s creations also inspired her: “Ballet can be like that!” When she graduated in 1994 she won first and second prize at the Ursula Moreton Choreographic Competition. This included “the porn duet – as it was nick-named by Edward Watson”. The material grew from her own enjoyment of athletic, intricate partner work, “I was a bit of a daredevil”, and gave immediate indication of the unusual, off kilter work that is now typical.

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Ghosts
By Jann Parry for The Observer

Cathy Marston ends her three-year tenure as associate artist with the Royal Opera House tonight, with the last performance of Ghosts, part of the ROH2 programme in the Linbury Studio. She has been able to work with exceptional collaborators, transforming the black-box theatre into a series of very different worlds. Though her choreography has often reflected the themes of productions on the main stage, Ghosts stands alone, anticipating Ibsen's centenary next year.

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Ghosts
By Donald Hutera for The Times


The ballet-trained choreographer Cathy Marston favours literary sources. Previous inspirations include Sophie’s Choice, The Tempest and the troubled psyche of T. S. Eliot’s wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood.

Ghosts is a dance adaptation of Ibsen’s 1881 play. A study of social hypocrisy and hereditary disease, Ibsen’s intense moral drama is steeped in gloom. One of the Norwegian playwright’s abiding themes was how dominated we are by our past. As he chillingly put it: “We sail with a corpse in the cargo.”

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