{"id":31765,"date":"2019-01-04T12:54:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T12:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/?p=31765"},"modified":"2019-01-04T12:54:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T12:54:56","slug":"real-talk-with-freelance-choreographer-cathy-marston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/real-talk-with-freelance-choreographer-cathy-marston\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Talk with Freelance Choreographer Cathy Marston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Armando Braswell<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did you want to be when you were older?\nDid you always want to do what you are doing now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. When I was very young I wanted to be a police woman because there\nwas a TV program called “Juliet Bravo” and I thought that the female\ndetective was fantastic and I wanted to be her. My mum then told me that\nshe was actually an actress playing a police woman, so I wanted to be an\nactress, but there weren\u2019t any acting classes for children my age in the area.\nI started tap dancing first and then went to ballet, and that took over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nlike dancers who…<\/strong> work from the inside out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am afraid of… <\/strong>If I take time off, that I will be forgotten; that it would be very hard\nto climb back on the ladder so to speak. I don’t know if that is really the\ncase, but I have a feeling it might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something you would change in the dance\nworld?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would make networking, in\norder to develop one\u2019s career, a far more transparent and less time consuming\nactivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something You would change in the real world?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s really hard, I mean there is clearly so many things to change socially, politically, financially and so on. My real world at the moment, is very much centered on my children…and right now I would really like it if my baby didnt cry when I drop her off at child care every morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
3 Sisters by Cathy Marston, Photo by Philipp Zinniker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is something you would change in ballet\neducation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

S<\/strong>peaking\nabout \u2018ballet\u2019 education: More of a focus on nurturing creative and curious\ndancers and not only nurture those qualities in the few who aspire to be\nchoreographers. I would also love it if dance became part of education in\nnormal schools everywhere. In terms of general education, I wish dance was\nobligatory on every school\u2019s curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is someone who has inspired you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had two choreographic teachers when I was at the Royal Ballet School,\nNorman Morris and David Drew. Sadly, both have passed on now, but they both\nreally inspired me to choreograph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any goals?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gosh! I mean I am working at them every day. I love making work. There\nare many stories I want to tell through dance. I want to make them with the\nbest possible collaborators, the best possible dancers. The most creative teams\nthat I can find. That is my dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jane Eyre by Cathy Marston, Photo Caroline Holden <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is your take on the lack of female\nchoreographers and directors?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a huge question which I get asked a lot and I think there are many\nanswers, all of which have a grain of truth or more in them. It is so hard to\nanswer in general. I think starting a family has got a lot to do with it. I am\nexperiencing this at the moment, I have two children and it is really difficult\nmoment to get through… and I mean it\u2019s not a moment; it\u2019s a 18 year or more\ncommitment to \u2018grow’ children. I am sure that is a stumbling block for some\nwomen…and men. Perhaps there is also some truth in the idea of a sort of\n\u2018club’ of male leaders, it’s a residue left over from many years and its\nsometimes harder to break into that world as a woman. There are exceptions to\nevery rule so you can\u2019t really say that one thing or another is the only\nreason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made a very deliberate decision not to take time out. I have two\nchildren now; last summer I premiered Lolita (for the Copenhagen Summer Ballet)\na week before giving birth to my second child, Gilbert.  Since he has been\nborn I have had three big productions, two of which were creations. But hey –\nit’s working! I love\ntraveling with my children as much as I love being at home with them. It brings\nanother dimension to our relationship as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One has to acknowledge that there is an imbalance. I think that one of\nthe problems is that people do not want to consider and admit to that\ninequality – even now. Until it is acknowledged it won\u2019t change. In the UK it\nis a big topic. It is frequently highlighted in the national papers and is\nregularly discussed at high levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Northern Ballet’s Jane Eyre, a ballet by Cathy Marston. Photo Emma Kauldhar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The major question in terms of action is whether the \u2018gatekeepers’,\nshould be programming purely on an artistic basis (and that doesn’t mean on a\nqualitative basis at all because obviously that’s subjective) or should they\ntry to look at other factors such as equality and diversity in various areas.\nMany people are very resistant to looking at anything other than artistic\ntaste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the topic being so hotly discussed in the UK, there is\nnow considerable work being done; I was involved, for example, in a project\nwith ‘Tonic Theatre’ in the UK whose mission is to support the theatre industry\nto achieve greater gender equality. Sadlers Wells and Northern Ballet were both\ninvolved, both of which organisations I have worked with, and I hope we will\nsee some of their good intentions being transformed into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advice for young women who want to be\nchoreographers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well I guess it\u2019s ‘do it’. Be resilient. Keep doing it and then do it more. I have enjoyed\na slow-burn career. Maybe I noticed some of my colleagues having more of a\nsteep curve in terms of how their career builds and I am very happy that mine\nhas been so spread out – both in time and geography. Look further afield than might be your first\ninstinct. Find your place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Armando Braswell What did you want to be when you were older? Did you always want to do what you are doing now? No. When I was very young I wanted to be a police woman because there was a TV program called “Juliet Bravo” and I thought that the female detective was fantastic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31775,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31765\/revisions\/31775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}