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What the Critics say
The Telegraph 2007
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. (Echo and Narcissus, 2007)
The Times 2007
The liquid, sensually entwining shapes Marston creates are enhanced by wonderful, climactic live video imagery cast upon a giant shaving mirror tilted above the stage. The piece isn’t perfect, but most of its aspects have been impressively integrated…a powerful, satisfying experience. (Echo and Narcissus 2007)
Northern Press 2005
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. (‘Shore’ May 2005)
Guardian 2005
Despite George Balanchine’s assertion that ‘ballet is woman’ , female choreographers are few and far between. Cathy Marston is the UK’s brightest.
Sunday Express 2005
Associate Artist Cathy Marston produced a juicy little masterpiece last week. Quality is her byword… you could only smile at the perfection of it all. Marston is up there with Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley in the top quality, thoroughly enjoyable misery stakes. Will Ghosts go down well in Liverpool or Glasgow on a Saturday night? It’s worth a try. (Ghosts – ROH2)
Independent on Sunday 2005
Marston answers Ibsen's tense, retrograde structure with a perfectly logical time-scheme of her own… Her key ploy is to show cause and effect simultaneously, bringing past and present together…the clammy claustrophobia of this story can be intolerable. Knowing this, Marston brightens a few corners, inserting a gorgeous bread-making scene for the two maid playfully poking their elbows in great lumps of dough (a substance whose sexual suggestiveness is useful)…ravishing duets for the younger maid and Matthew Hart's seal-pup of an Oswald…Dave Maric's score jab(s) through the sticky atmosphere like a knife…video by Peter Anderson compounds the sense of endless Nordic gloom… to everyone's credit the ballet's 70 minutes feel short. (Ghosts – ROH2)
Telegraph 2005
There is perfect logic to reframe (Ghosts) in dance…her re-structuring is deft…her choreography is wonderfully illustrative of character… she has let the drama bleed through the dance.
Northern Press 2005
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.
Dividing
Silence 2004
Northern
Ballet Theatre
One of the hottest young choreographers around.. Marston has come
up with an important new abstract work for NBT. An epic of pure dance and
an exultant kaleidoscope of moves, Dividing Silence is a finely crafted
piece which shows Marstons gift for sculpting the human form into
incredible shapes
Its a fairground ride that never ends, swerving
round corners with contrasting dynamics. The
Guardian
Craft at full throttle
Marstons most significant creation
to date, (she) has raised her customary kinetic intelligence to a new level
of sophistication
Dividing Silence is a firing-on-all-cylinders dramatic
abstration with a built in tension between clarity and complexity
this
dance generates an intellectual buzz.
Dance Europe
Dividing Silence is a strident, edgy piece inspired by Martinus
Double Concerto, living and breathing every tonal shift of this music
It looks divine. The Stage
Venetian
Requiem 2004 Royal Ballet
"Marstons subtle and sophisticated dance
language to a commissioned score by Judith Bingham for saxophone and countertenor,
wove a web of watery grief. Choreographing the elements is a gift from
God. Diaghilev would be mad about it."
The Sunday Express
'Venetian Requiem is by far the most successful creation... Marston takes
two facts about Diaghilevs life his death in Venice and his
fear of drowning and produces a resonant duet that overwhelms Edward
Watson in the watery imagery of Lauren Cuthbertsons lingering, intimate
dancing.' The Times
The best is Cathy Marston's Venetian Requeim, a setting of Judith Bingham's
duo for saxophone and counter tenor. Inspired by Bingham's liquid, uneasy
sound Marston floats a series of wistful and unsettling encounters between
Edward Watson and Lauren Cuthbertson, whose eerie embrace signifies some
kind of watery nemesis. The Guardian
Dichterliebe
2004 The Ensemble Group
Cathy Marstons exquisite Dichterliebe,, set to Schumanns song
cycle of the same name, had a light, almost pastoral feel. Following the
various stages of a poets life, as he and his partner move through
the ups and downs of romance, the work had real depth of feeling. The
Scotsman
Before
the Tempest
After the Storm 2004 ROH2
Marston rises to the challenges
(she) has come up with a little
poetic gem
Rich in pain and tenderness, expressed in imaginative
shapes and movements. Dance Europe
Triple bill 2003 ROH2
What bliss it is to see new choreography that not only fulfils your expectations
but surpasses them
not only does she use fine technicians but she
has an instinct for and an understanding of the craft and the cherry
on the top she has ideas. Dance Europe
Sophie
2002 ROH2
as close to glimpsing someones soul as movement can get
The Times
absorbing, total theatre
It conveys with great delicacy and
immediacy the novels sadness and the notion of Sophes past
invading the present. The Independent
Stateless 2002 ROH2/ Royal Ballet
The choreography rushes and rolls
spectacular lifts, with splayed
limbs, are frozen moments of frenzy
.The Independent
Unstrung Tention 2002 ROH2
ambitious in scale, it proved she has fine-tuned her skills to mature
perfection
The movement shapes had the rare virtue of interesting
the mind and eye. The Independent
Marstons Unstrung Tention
a visually rich dance which stood
out for its flawless symmetries. The Spectator.
Facing Viv 2002 English National Ballet
Marston is a fast rising star of British choreography. (Her) choreography
is characterised by the deployment of the whole body to express an idea;
she uses the neck, abdominals and back the way most choreographers use
arms and legs. Marstons debut for English National Ballet is an
emotional holocaust which deserves a larger stage and wider audience.
Dance International
There are some spectacular moments..the surprising thing, in fact, is
that so serious unusual, and one might have thought, difficult a ballet
as Facing Viv was so much enjoyed by an audience who can hardly have known
what to expect. The Independent
Traces
2001 Royal Opera House
Marstons Traces was pure heaven from start to finish. Each
moment of unrequited love, confusion, friendship, subtle humour and tension,
exquisitely evolved in a superb display of fluid, dynamic choreography.
Dance Europe.
complex and always rewarding, left me wanting to see it again quickly.
The Independent.
Remember Miss Marstons name
Traces is an absolute stunner,
which I would happily see again on the ROH stage, or any other. Country
Life
Amaterasu 2001 City Ballet of London/Japan
Week
Marston got her chance to cut loose: a spectacular sequence for a dozen
men flying across the stage like firebrand that had finally been allowed
to self-ignite. The Times.
Tidelines 1999 Royal Ballet Company
a meditative piece that wears its intellectual genius with pride
Marston
produces a staggeringly beautiful and sensually pungent pas de deux that
gives the ballet an unforgettable punch line. The
Times.
Words Apart 1998 Royal Ballet Company
a multi-layered creation of enormous power, fast moving and expansive.
Forsythes In The Middle Somewhat Elevated must be one of only a
handful of repertory works powerful enough to follow such an impressive
premiere. Dance Europe
contrast of form and dynamic movement and stillness, spark off blazing,
original images. the actual movement is very much Marstons own,
merging fluidity with off-kilter shapes that push the furthest boundaries.
The Sunday Times.
[Photo
Peter Teigen] |