The Butterfly Effect

The internationally renowned choreographer Cathy Marston holds both British and Swiss citizenship. Since August 2023, she is the director of the Ballett Zürich. She received her dance training in Cambridge and at the Royal Ballet School in London. Between 1994 and 1999, she danced with Ballett Zürich, the Luzerner Theater Ballet, and Konzert Theater Bern. From 2002 to 2006, she was an Associate Artist at the Royal Opera House in London, and from 2007 to 2013, she served as ballet director at Konzert Theater Bern. Cathy Marston has been working as a highly successful freelance choreographer for many years and has been invited to work with numerous renowned international companies and institutions. She has created works, among others, for The Royal Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Ballet Black, the National Ballet of Cuba, as well as Opera Australia and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. In recent years, she has increasingly worked in the United States, with commissions for San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet Chicago. In her choreographic works, she brings major literary classics to life through dance, and approaches significant historical figures in unexpected and original ways. She achieved great success with her ballet adaptations "Mrs. Robinson" (Charles Webb), "Snowblind" (Ethan Frome), "Jane Eyre" (Charlotte Brontë), and "Of Mice and Men" (John Steinbeck). Unconventional perspectives also shape her biographically inspired works "The Cellist", "Victoria", and "Witch-Hunt". Cathy Marston has received multiple awards for her choreographic work, including a South Bank Sky Arts Award and the British National Dance Award. In 2020, the International Institute for Dance and Theatre honored her with an award for excellence in international dance. The highlight of her first season as director of Ballett Zürich was the 2024 world premiere of "Atonement", based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan (a co-production with Joffrey Ballet). In addition, her pieces "The Cellist" and "Snowblind" were performed in Zurich. In the previous season, her Clara Schumann ballet "Clara" premiered. In 2026, she will choreograph "Romeo and Juliet" for Ballett Zürich.

Lucas Valente comes from Brazil. He studied performing arts and philosophy at the University of São Paulo. His first engagement was with the Ballet Company Laura Alonso in Havana and he was involved in the «Arsenale della Danza» project at the Venice Biennale in 2012. From 2012 to 2016 he danced in the São Paulo Companhia de Dança, where he appeared in choreographies by Edouard Lock, Marco Goecke, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, and Jiří Kylián, among others. He danced in choreographies by Richard Siegal at the Ballet of Difference in 2017. He has been a member of Ballett Zürich since the 2017/18 season. He presented his choreography Trees Die Standing as a part of the «Junge Choreografen» series. He has appeared as Tybalt/Count Capulet in Christian Spuck’s Romeo und Julia and appeared in Crystal Pite’s Emergence.

Der Choreograf Ihsan Rustem, geboren in London, wurde an der Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance ausgebildet. Seine Karriere begann er mit Matthew Bournes Kompanie «Adventures in Motion Pictures», am Münchner Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz sowie bei «Introdans» in den Niederlanden. Schliesslich zog er in die Schweiz, wo er als Solist beim Bern Ballett und als Gründungsmitglied von TanzLuzern am dortigen Theater engagiert war. Er tanzte in Rollen von u.a. Hofesh Shechter, Matthew Bourne, Stijn Celis, Cayetano Soto, Felix Landerer sowie Cathy Marston und arbeitete u.a. mit Mats Ek, Jiri Kylián, Hans van Manen und William Forsythe. Seine Arbeit als Residenzchoreograf für das «NW Dance Project» in Portland, Oregon, wurde mit zahlreichen Auszeichnungen gewürdigt: State of Matter gewann 2012 den Sadler's Wells Global Dance Contest sowie den Publikumspreis beim 25. Internationalen Wettbewerb für Choreografen Hannover; Carmen erhielt 2017 den Readers' Choice Award des Dance Magazine für die «Beste Zusammenarbeit». 2014 war er ausserdem Preisträger des Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's International Commissioning Project. Weitere Kooperationen bestehen u.a. mit dem Nederlands Dans Theater, dem Ballets Jazz Montréal, dem Moskauer Ballett, mit Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 2, der Tanzcompanie St. Gallen, dem Würzburger Ballett sowie mit Arts Umbrella Dance Company Vancouver. Er ist ehemaliger künstlerischer Leiter des Dance Art Studios der Ballettschule Luzern. 2020 gründete er gemeinsam mit Cathy Marston die in der Schweiz ansässige Kompanie «Cie. La Ronde». Jüngst wurde er Mitglied der Jury des renommierten Prix de Lausanne.