2006-2010
2010
Blood Wedding
Premiere: Finnish National Ballet, Finnish Opera House, Helsinki. Oct 2010
Music: Dave Maric
Set: Jon Bausor
Costumes: Erika Turunen
Light: Tulay Schakir
Scenario: Edward Kemp with Cathy Marston
Cast: 27-30 dancers
“Created by British choreographer Cathy Marston for the Finnish National Ballet, Blood Wedding is a clear-cut, no-nonsense adaptation of the original play by Federico Garcia Lorca… The inexorable course of the tragedy is underlined in booming percussion as the lovers perform a courting dance, almost as if in heat. This is the ‘chemistry’ that is so often talked about. At the same time, the people upstage are engaged in a formal, custom-bound wedding polonaise. The space is used to excellent effect, as are simultaneous contrasting events.”
Helsingin Sanomat, October 2010
To view a showreel and/or video of the complete work please contact Cathy Marston to request a private link.
And our faces vanish like water
Premiere: Bern:Ballett, Vidmarhalle, Jan 2010
Music: Dave Maric – special commission for Steff La Cheffe (beatboxer) and Melanie Adami (soprano)
Set: Raphael Barbier
Costumes: Catherine Voeffray
Cast: 9
Length: 13 mins
“Wie Splitter aus verschiedenen Welten fügen sich die Energien von Text, Ton (Dave Maric) und unterschiedlichen Tanzstilen zusammen. «And our faces vanish like water» wird zur zitatenreichen Auslegeordnung. Es bilden sich Brennpunkte von starker emotioneller Kraft. Ihre Stärke ist die Unvorhersehbarkeit.”
“The movements of the ensemble meet the sung statements of classical soprano (Mélanie Adami) and the Bern Beat boxer Steff La Cheffe, you feel a sudden crackle. Like fragments from different worlds, the energies of text, sound (Dave Maric) and different dance styles coalesce. "And our faces vanish like water" transforms into a whole range of options rich with quotations. There are Hotspots of strong emotional force; unpredictability is their strength.”
Der Bund, February 2009
CLARA
Premiere: Bern:Ballett, Vidmarhalle, May 2010
Music: Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms. Various pieces for pianist and baritone.
Costume and Set: Jon Bausor
Light: Jon Clarke
Cast: 11
Length: 50mins
Das Komplexe schreckt Cathy Marston nicht. Im Gegenteil. Eine Geschichte interessiert sie, wenn sie sie aus neuen Blickwinkeln beleuchten kann. Mit Vorliebe fokussiert sie auf eine Figur, die eher am Rande steht, und gibt ihr im Tanz eine eigene Stimme und Identität…Raffiniert und verletzlich sind die Bewegungsbilder, die Cathy Marston für das Unaussprechliche in den Beziehungen findet. Am stärksten ist sie da, wo sie ein Paar aus nächster Nähe fokussiert. Dann scheinen die kontrastreich temperierten Emotionen aus den Seelen hervorzubrechen.
“The complexity doesn’t scare Cathy Marston. On the contrary. A story interests her if she can shed light on it from new perspective. She prefers to focus on an angle that’s on the periphery, and through dance find her own voice and identity ... Refined and vulnerable are Marston’s moving images for the ineffable relationship. It is strongest, when she focuses on a couple in close-up when the contrasting yet tempered emotions burst forth from the souls.”
Der Bund, April 2010
To view a video of the complete work please contact Cathy Marston to request a private link.
2009
Wuthering Heights (Sturmhöhe)
Premiere: Bern:Ballett, Stadttheater Bern, April 2009
Inspired by the novel by Emily Bronte
Music: Dave Maric - specially commissioned and written for live Double Bass (Mich Gerber) and electronic score.
Set: Jann Messerli
Costumes: Dorothee Brodrueck
Scenario: Edward Kemp
Cast: 12
Length: 70mins approx (1 act)
“Marston's great strength is her ability to depict nuanced emotional states, particularly those of women. (…) While this is very much a chamber production, examining the cat's cradle of tensions between the five main characters, the emotion is full scale and the final duet between Tattersall and Marshall is taut with sadness and longing.”
The Observer, May 2009
To view a video of the complete work please contact Cathy Marston to request a private link.
Ashes
Premiere: Graz Ballett, Graz Schauspielhaus, Austria. May 2009
Music: Dave Maric
Cast: 8
“Die nuancenreichen, expressiven Musik von Dave Maric folgend, wird das ganze Spektrum positiver und negativer Energien von Liebe und Hass, Anziehung und Abstoßung, Leidenschaft und Resignation, Beherrschung, Unterwerfung und Aufbegehren, Zartheit und Brutalität zu ex-trem körperbetonter Bewegung mit Verknotungen, Ringkampfgriffen, Schlägen und Kopfstößen.”
“The nuanced, expressive music by Dave Maric employs the full range of positive and negative energies of love and hate, attraction and repulsion, passion and resignation, domination, submission and rebellion, tenderness and brutality matching the extreme choreography of knots, wrestling grips, strokes and head-butting”
Die Woche, June 2009
Juliet and Romeo
Premiere: Bern:Ballett, Stadttheater Bern, Oct 2009
Music: Prokofiev
Set: Garance Marneur
Costumes: Dorothee Brodrueck
Cast: 11
Length: 90mins (two acts)
“Die elf Tänzerinnen und Tänzer sind in Form und geniessen es sichtlich, die Rollen, die ihnen Marston auf den Tanzleib geschneidert hat, auszuloten.”
“The eleven dancers are in top for and visibly enjoyed the roles that Marston had tailored for them”
Der Tagesanzeiger, October 2009
To view a video of the complete work please contact Cathy Marston to request a private link.
2008
Through Your Eyes
Premiere: Bern:Ballett, Stadttheater Bern. May 2008
Inspired by the Birthday Letters by Ted Hugues
Music: Shostakovich – 13th String Quartet
Set: Stefanie Liniger
Costumes: Julia Hansen
Cast: 7
Length: 20mins
A Tale of Two Cities
Premiere: Northern Ballet Theatre, Grand Theatre, Leeds, August 2008
Based on the novel by Charles Dickens.
Music: Dave Maric – specially commissioned for the NBT orchestra
Set and costumes: Jon Bausor
Light: Peter Mumford
Scenario: Edward Kemp
Cast: 30 approx
“Marston fuses ballet with contemporary dance styles and her moves are imaginative, technically rigorous and filled with tension between a fluid lyricism and sharp attack. Her work transcends the chocolate-box prettiness that can be a pitfall for ballet companies, and here the dance shifts between being witty, fierce and, at times, truly lovely.”
The Metro, September 2008
To view a showreel and/or video of the complete work please contact Cathy Marston to request a private link.
Libera Me
Premiere: Bern:Ballett, Stadttheater Bern, October 2008
Music: Igor Stravinsky - Requiem Canticles and other songs for choir
Costumes: Julia Hansen
Light: Jon Clark
Cast: 9
Length: 25mins approx
2007
Echo and Narcissus
Premiere: Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London. May 2007. Commissioned by the Royal Opera House.
A ‘dance-opera’ based on the myth of Echo and Narsissus.
Music: Stuart McRae. Specially commissioned score for soprano, baritone and small ensemble.
Set and Costumes: Jon Bausor
Video: Charles Kriel
Light: Simon Bennison
Scenario: Edward Kemp
Cast: 2 singers and 2 dancers
Length: 30mins approx
“(Marston) skilfully handles a complex counterpoint between all the elements at play - two dancers, two singers, Stuart MacRae's imposing score and an impressive set by Jon Bausor with a huge suspended circular mirror and live video projections (…) Finally, here is a choreographer with an ambitious vision and the talent to back it up.”
Telegraph, May 2007
To view a showreel and/or video of the complete work please contact Cathy Marston to request a private link.
Whispers
Premiere: Washington Ballet, Washington. May 2007
Music: Gorecki – Quasi una Fantasia 1
Cast: 3
Length: 9 mins
Firebird
Premiere: Bern:Ballett, Stadttheater Bern. October 2007
Inspired by the story of Rasputin and the Romanovs
Music: Stravinsky – Firebird
Set and Costumes: Jon Bausor
Scenario: Edward Kemp
Cast: 12
Length: 45mins approx
“(Marston’s choreography) speaks in metaphorical, symbolic and ritualistic gesture: dance phrases begin at the centre of unwinding spirals, clusters of dancers seeming to unlock from central axes, unfurling outwards into clawing, keening movement that hovers on the edge of collapse…”
Ballet.co.uk (Ian Palmer) October 2007
2006
d)us(t
Premiere: The Place Prize, The Place, London. September 2006
Music: Dave Maric
Costumes: Jon Bausor
Light: Simon Bennison
Cast: 2 (Charlotte Broom and Dylan Elmore)
Length: 15mins
“Marston has a tremendous gift to speak to an audience through the interaction of two bodies and there were inventive and fascinating movements in her pas de deux.”
Ballet.co.uk (Graham Watts) September 2006
Arcana
Premiere: The Cathy Marston Project, Hall for Cornwall, August 2006
Music: Dave Maric – specially commissioned.
Costumes: Bora Aksu
Light: Simon Bennison
Cast: 7
Length: 20mins
“To plangent but powerful music by Dave Maric accompanying dancers and relationships madly tripping over each other, Marston somehow mixes the despair and passion where dance comes from.”
Ballet.co.uk (Jeffery Taylor) October 2006
Spell
Premiere: The Cathy Marston Project, Trafalgar Square, London. July 2006
Music: Nina Simone
Cast: 6
Length: 15 mins approx
Shore
Premiere: Bamburgh Castle, UK, May 2006
A site-specific commission by Dance City performed outdoors.
Music: Dave Maric – specially commissioned for choir, solo singer, saxophone, percussion and Northumbrian bagpipes.
Stage and Costumes: Patrick Burnier
Cast: 3 dancers and 1 singer, choir
Length: 40 mins approx
Cathy’s latest piece of magic was set in the dunes by Bamburgh Castle…intertwining bodies were liberating and spell-binding, replicating the ever changing forces of nature.
Northern Press, 2005
El Dorado
Premiere: Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Havana, April 2006
Music: John Adams – El Dorado
Cast: 16 approx
Length: 30min approx
