Biography
Born in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Marston spent most of her childhood in Cambridge before joining the Royal Ballet Upper School in 1992 where she won the Ursula Moreton Choreographic Competition.
Upon graduation she joined the Zurich Ballet where she performed a mixed repertoire of work from Balanchine, Van Manen, Nijinsky and Wubbe. In 1996 she moved on to the Luzern Ballet under the direction of Richard Wherlock and later spent a year with the Bern Ballet, continuing to enjoy a range of works from Robert North, David Parsons, Stijn Celis and many others.
During her six years in Switzerland, Marston continued to develop a relationship with the Royal Ballet, choreographing regularly for their Dance Bites tours and education department. Her ballets were performed at the Sadlers Wells Theatre, on tour in the UK and China.
In 2000, she returned to London to begin a new chapter of her career as freelance choreographer/dancer. In the following seven years, she choreographed for the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, Ballett Basel, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, the Washington Ballet, George Piper Dances, The Ensemble Group, Ballet Central, Images of Dance and many other companies. In 2002, she was made the first Associate Artist of The Royal Opera House. This relationship saw the ROH produce five evenings of Marston’s work in the Linbury Theatre, including a full-length adaptation of Ibsen’s ‘Ghosts’ as well as one-act ballets such as ‘before the tempest…after the storm’, ‘Asyla’, ‘Echo and Narcissus’, ‘Traces’, ‘Sophie’, ‘Stateless’ and ‘Broken Fiction’. ‘Before the tempest…after the storm’ and ‘Asyla’ were filmed by the BBC. Marston was also commissioned to create four short works for the screen by Channel Four, for which she worked with Director, Margaret Williams on You Cuba.
She was movement director in Opera and Theatre productions including ‘Bird of Night’ at the Royal Opera House, Don Giovanni at Grange Park Opera and Calico in the West End. Other achievements included a commission from the Place Prize (2006) and being shortlisted for the Jerwood Choreographic Awards, the UK Critics Circles Awards and the Arts Foundation Fellowship.
During this period Marston performed with Henri Oguike Dance Company, Arc Dance Company, Liv Lorent, and created the role of The Blue Fairy in Will Tuckett’s Royal Opera House’s Production of Pinocchio.
At the end of her tenure as Associate Artist of the Royal Opera House, Marston formed her own company – The Cathy Marston Project. Funded by the Arts Council England, it toured the UK in Autumn 2006 with a triple bill of her work including the world premiere of Arcana – a collaboration with composer, Dave Maric and fashion designer, Bora Aksu.
In August 2007, Marston became the Director of the Bern:Ballett, Switzerland, where she creates her own work and commissions the work of others. Her creations in Bern have included ‘Wuthering Heights’ which toured to the Royal Opera House, London, and ‘Juliet and Romeo’ as well as many shorter works. She also continues to create new pieces elsewhere including a full-length adaptation of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ for Northern Ballet Theatre, ‘Ashes’ for the Graz Ballett and in 2010 she will create ‘Blood Wedding’ for the Finnish National Ballet. In 2010, The Prix de Lausanne used four solos from her repertoire as their official ‘contemporary variations’ for the candidates to learn.
Marston frequently collaborates with other artists. These have included composers - Dave Maric, Stuart MacRae, Judith Bingham, Roxanna Panufnik, Jules Maxwell, Peter Sculthorpe and Dylan Newcombe; designers – Jon Bausor, Garance Marneaur, Dorothee Brodruek, Catherine Voeffray, Jann Messerli, Raphael Barbier, Jean-Marc Puissant, Anthony Lamble, Tatyana Van Walsum; film makers Peter Anderson, Charles Kriel, Margaret Williams and Terry Braun; dramaturges – Edward Kemp, William Oldroyd, and light designers - Simon Bennison, Jon Clark and Peter Mumford.
