Preview: Mon 11 September    Semi-Final: Sat 16 September

Cathy Marston studied dance in her hometown of Cambridge before joining the Royal Ballet Upper School in 1992. In 1994, she graduated to join the Zurich Ballet and over the following six years went on to dance with the Luzern and Bern Ballet Companies. She was granted leave to choreograph three ballets in for The Royal Ballet’s Dance Bites Tour in between 1997 and 1999, and in the summer of 2000 returned to London to begin a new chapter of her career as an independent choreographer/dancer.

She has since created many ballets for companies such as The Royal Ballet, English Natiional Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, George Piper Dances, Central Ballet, Images of Dance, The Royal Ballet School, National Youth Dance Company, London Children’s Ballet as well as works for television (BBC and Channel 4), opera and theatre.

In 2002 Marston was made first Associate Artist of the Royal Opera House where her work is regularly produced in the Linbury Studio Theatre and she collaborates with composers like Dave Maric and Start McRae, designers such as Jon Bausor and Anthony Lamble and film makers including Peter Anderson and Terry Braun. In September 2005 she created her first full-length work based on Ibsen’s Ghosts which was revived by the ROH for further performances in June 2006.

Since living in London Marston has danced with the Henri Oguike Dance Company, for Liv Lorent and joined Arc Dance Company in August 2002. She performed in West Side Story at the Bregenz Festival in 2003 and Will Tuckett’s ROH2 production on Pionocchio in 2005.

Current choreographic commissions include works for ROH2, The Washington Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, The Place Prize, the Trafalgar Square Festival, as well as movement for the new Royal Opera production Bird of Night.

Marston has recently formed her own, project based company – The Cathy Marston Project. They will tour a triple bill of her work around the UK in Sept/Oct 2006.