Press Packet
Download the press packet as a pdf here.
Selected Press
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Hyphen, at the Joyce SoHo
“…highly kinetic, complex movement… Tall and long-limbed, with a beautiful line and gorgeously arched feet, Ms. Cabeen is her own greatest asset. In an opening solo, “Composites,” she demonstrates the fundamentals of her style, clearly built on her own capacities for rapid change of dynamics, sudden bodily isolations and luxurious, balletic extensions.
“…Ms. Cabeen’s movement invention can be fascinating. In another solo, “Breeze” (danced here by Sarah Lustbader), she invokes hip-hop and martial arts. In a duet, “Distances,” Ms. Cabeen and Echo Gustafson move with slow, sculptural, yogic coilings, and in a final solo, “Segments,” Ms. Cabeen enacts a kind of demonic possession as Mr. Mathis plays marvelous rippling sounds on the kora.
“…“Chromatic Dispersion,” a visually exquisite duet, beautifully performed by Ms. Lustbader and Ms. Gustafson. Deploying Mr. Cepress’s giant paper fans, fastened to one side of the body, they first unfold them into peacock-like semicircles, then pull them out to encircle their bodies.
“The evocations are multiple: kimonos, flamenco dresses, tents, sculpture, Picasso’s designs for “Parade.” Neither costume nor movement would mean much without the other. Now that’s collaboration.”
Read the complete review at New York Times.com
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Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times, May 13, 2011
“…Cabeen herself is a feast for the eyes, not only as a mover but as a crafter.
“Composites was a thesis statement of sorts for the evening. A solo set to music by Julian Martlew, and the text of writer Jay Mcleer it is built on a phonic movement vocabulary that reflects the text. The work shows not only her range and a dancer (technique clean as a whistle) the liquidity and articulation of her back, arms, (even her feet), and the clarity of her gesture, but it exposes her courage; her courage to be aggressive, confrontational, fully feminine with an assaulting beauty of both face and form, then masculine with a “don’t try me swagger”. It shows her ability to be classic and iconoclastic concomitantly, all within a small space and window of time with boundaries overlapping. She has the courage to tell what feels like quiet little secrets with the body, and through the eyes. She challenges you to watch while daring you to look away.
“Distances, a duet for Cabeen and long time friend and colleague Echo Gustafson, was performed with two musicians, Kane Mathis (on the Oud) and Julian Martlew (on the Dobro) sitting on either side of the stage as the women explore the concepts of space and distance physically by intertwining, weaving, and unweaving their bodies together and apart, bearing and shifting weight, in the most confounding of ways. There was a meditative, aquatic, Tai Chi feeling about it. It was almost a study on intimacy and closeness, and then when the two individuals separate you (and they) have to figure out and establish who and what they are alone, before they come back together. The physical synchronicity between these to dancers was clear, when connected they seemed to think with one mind, it was difficult to establish where one woman ended and the other began. It was utterly fascinating to watch the various way of becoming intertwined, knotted with someone and yet finding a graceful way of extracting one’s self. What a physical metaphor for relationships.
“There are hints of Jones and Graham like tiny markers in her work, yet it is clear that she has digested her experiences and come to an understanding about what they (as influences are) and what they mean to her, there are respectful references to her linage that organically emerge almost the way ones cadence and intonation of speech is like that of your families, you can’t hear it but anyone listening can hear the similarities. She is organic, and authentic and it comes through her work, she takes risks, and not because they are there for the taking but because she doesn’t know how else to be. When viewing Catherine Cabeen, and her work I feel it’s not about “liking “ it or not, it’s not about getting it- or being “smart” enough to get it. It’s about something that we see very little of nowadays in dance (and elsewhere for that matter) it’s really about art and creativity, and making work because you are so moved to… Invariably when work is made without “agenda” it has the freedom to do what we “say” art should do, and that is, make you feel, think, question, imagine, reflect, in no particular order and possibly without judgment but simply by and for experience… It should inspire you, disturb you, soothe you but is always, always leave you altered, and that is what Cabeen’s work does, she slithers inside plants a thought, an image an idea and just as quickly as she entered she slips back into the darkness.”
Read the complete review at mybodymyimage.com
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Theresa Howard, my Body, my Image Blog, May 17, 2011
Into the Void, at On The Boards, 2011
“…Sound can be a trance. Colors can be an embrace. Air can be a shape… "Void" is a dreamlike, gender-fluid, near-subliminal exploration of what Klein means to Cabeen. Take it as such, and it's a seductive piece to watch unfold.
“…Even with video, musical score and lighting (by Connie Yun) in constant shape-shifting movement, Cabeen's choreography — with its light-limbed elegance of line — deftly holds its own. Michael Cepress' costumes add to the flow and flair of the protean dance action.”
Read the complete review at Seattle Times.com
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Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times, Friday, April 29, 2011
“…One of the great gifts an artist can give another is to inspire a work, and the reciprocal gesture (because art is fundamentally based in a gift economy) is to reawaken interest in someone whose work has been misunderstood, overlooked, or fallen out of fashion.
“Catherine Cabeen’s Into the Void (at On the Boards through Saturday) doesn’t resurrect conceptual painter Yves Klein, who would have been 83 this year: It says “Thank you for your life’s work”–and “Bet you wish you’d thought of this.” It is sometimes joyful, sometimes embattled, frequently gorgeous, and always in pursuit of the elevating moment, the one you suspect might flash across your mind’s eye in a dark time.
“…As Klein, Cabeen adopts, with glorious extensions, one-footed judo poses that evolve from forceful push to feline fall in a way that explodes the distinction.
“…The dancers also lift each other up, perch on shoulders, and the ensemble catches Cabeen and she leaps, again and again, into the “void”–the nothing that becomes something through the energies of art.
“Klein was one of those artists who would tell you that the painting was just what was left over after the moment of creation; as you watch Cabeen and her collaborators dematerializing the body and its adornments into light and motion, you understand exactly what he meant.”
Read the complete review at thesunbreak.com
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Michael van Baker, The Sunbreak, April 29, 2011
“…In its world premiere performance, Catherine Cabeen’s Into the Void presented a rich, unmitigated journey into creativity… The overall quality of Cabeen’s choreography throughout is free of gravity but not relaxed; each gesture is suspended for a moment in time, finding its own tempo and giving equal substance to every inch of negative space surrounding the dancers. Conventional ideas of up and down, left and right were completely eliminated in even the simplest roll of a shoulder or undulation of the spine.
“…Some of the finer points of the choreography in Void included unusual interactions between the performers, who rather than act and react to each other seemed triggered by one another instead. The touching of feet or hands would send one spiraling away, highlighting a transfer of energy between them in nonlinear fashion. At other times a simple touch caused another body to pulse, sending a wave through the adjacent dancer. Combined with a sense of expansiveness through their backs and length in their extremities, each dancer exhibited a sense of infinite reach into space.
“…To say that Into the Void is art at its finest is an understatement—it is an experience that uses contemporary movement in all the right ways and is arguably at the forefront of a new generation of dance artists. Powerful in imagery and brimming with sophistication, Cabeen has created a portal through which an audience can view something they may have never been able to imagine on their own. With two performances remaining this weekend, Into the Void is not to be missed—it is a guaranteed escape from reality, not into fantasy, but into imagination and ingenuity.”
Read the complete review at seattledances.blogspot.com
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Steve Ha, Seattle Dances, April 29, 2011
“…Celebrating the visually abstract, Catherine Cabeen’s world premiere of Into the Void at On the Boards last weekend …created an air of excitement in the theatre before the lights even dimmed. As the audience entered the theatre, Cabeen was already on stage, laying in a square of light and dressed in drag as Klein. …No knowledge of Yves Klein and his work was needed to enjoy Into the Void. Cabeen packed the 70-minute show with varied elements and strong modern dance, and a lack of narrative allowed for open-ended interpretations and emotional response. In Cabeen’s numerous nods to Klein throughout the show, surely this was the strongest shake of all.”
Read the complete review at cityartsmagazine.com
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Rachel Gallaher, City Arts Magazine, May 1, 2011
“…Anyone familiar with Catherine Cabeen's vivacious work can expect the sensuous beauty of her Breezes and the explosive transitions of her earlier Segments will surely inform her exploration of gender and emptiness in the enigma of Yves Klein. Into the Void is a new and bold work that will prove her reputation to those who doubt and reaffirm her place as one of Seattle's finest dance choreographers.”
Read the complete review at seattlest.com
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Omar Willey, Seattle-st, Arts & Events, April 2011
“…In rehearsal last week, the dancing was swift, sinewy and downright risky at times… you should have a "Void" that's really something.”
Read the complete article at seattletimes.nwsource.com
“…When Catherine Cabeen opened "The A.W.A.R.D. Show!" at On the Boards in late 2009, a lot of local dance lovers did a double-take and asked, "Where did she come from?" Her lanky sidewinding moves, alternately fluid and sharp, were mesmerizing. Her sense of theatricality, in both the flair of her performance and the shapeliness of the piece, was impeccable.”
Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com
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Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times, April 2011
“…Catherine Cabeen creates “a painting in time and space” with her new dance Into the Void at On the Boards… Cabeen, a feminist scholar, is less interested in having women roll around in toxic paint and more in the metaphor.”
Read the complete review at seattlemet.com
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Laura Dannen, Seattle Met, April 2011
Seattle Press
“…Catherine Cabeen in her Into the Void, an interdisciplinary work inspired by Yves Klein that premires at On the Boards in April. (PHOTO p70)
“…Catherine Cabeen, formerly with Bill T. Jones and the Martha Graham Dance Company, promotes interdisciplinary collaboration as a form of public scholarship. She performs widely, recently in New York (she still performs with Richard Move) and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania…
“…OtB takes risks and supports some of the most exciting performing arts anywhere. This season includes Catherine Cabeen’s Into the Void… (PHOTO p 78)”
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Gigi Berardi, "Seattle Takes Off," Dance Magazine, 1/1/2011 pp70-78
“Beautiful and compelling… Cabeen’s work sums up the best of the Seattle Dance experience.”
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Alice Kaderlan KUOW Seattle 7/1/2010
“…Cabeen's a remarkable dancer and choreographer, as anyone who's seen her work knows.”
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Jeremy Barker, Sunbreak 5/20/2010
“…Catherine Cabeen may be the most striking dancer-choreographer to emerge on the local scene in the past year. She wowed audiences at On the Boards' "A.W.A.R.D. Show!" in December with a slinky, angular solo that wasn't really a solo at all because it was so entwined with Kane Mathis' performance on African harp. Then, without missing a beat, she substituted at the last minute for an injured dancer in Spectrum Dance Theater's "Farewell." Now we have a chance to see her guide her own company through "Form and Fluidity," an evening exploring "shifting intersections between words, rhythm, meaning, movement, sound and color.”
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Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times 5/21/2010
Distances, on Moving People Dance Company, Albuquerque, 2010
“…Guest artist Catherine Cabeen and Gustafson created and danced a stunning duet exploring the struggle of two people to relate and join with each other. Titled "Distances," the dancers projected arms, feet and legs into negative spaces of almost joined bodies, discovering moments of contact and support with deep leans on each other's backs. Musical excerpts from "Escalay" by Hamza El Din flowed with the delicate fluid progression of moves on stage. Again, the change in dynamics from frantic speed to a more introspective, sustained quality of energy was welcome.”
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Jennifer Noyer, Albuquerque Journal 6/6/2010
The A.W.A.R.D. Show! Seattle 2009
“…Catherine Cabeen, Friday night's finalist, got the evening off to an extraordinary start with "Segments," which she both choreographed and performed. Still, this wasn't a solo. Every move she made was tied so closely into Kane Mathis' alternately percussion-harsh and string-lush live performance on the kora (a 21-string West African harp) that "Segments" was virtually a duet.
“Along a stark strip of light, Cabeen progressed toward Mathis almost as if he had her by a string. When he rapped the body of his instrument, she was staccato-sharp in her response. When he strummed arpeggios, she undulated with the sound.
“Beaten back, then lured forward again by the music, she made a slantwise progress across the stage that finally culminated in a meeting and a kind of emancipation too good to give away.”
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Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times arts writer 12/12/2009
“…Friday’s victor was Catherine Cabeen for her solo “Segments,” performed to the live music of kora player Kane Mathis. Mostly staying within a broad diagonal shaft of light, Cabeen engaged the evocative sound of Mathis’ 22-stringed African harp at times internalizing the music in muted movements, or openly engaging it with her long-limbs and strong technique. In the most striking moment she approached Mathis and did a modified penché arabesque in which she pitched forward, head to the ground, one leg extended to the rafters, with her body’s line neatly referencing the long neck of the kora.
“A former performer with the Martha Graham Company, and that of Bill T. Jones, Cabeen is a beautiful dancer…”
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Spider Kedelsky, Crosscut.com Seattle 12/17/2009
Carpathian Dawn, choreographed on the Cabiri
“Choreographer Catherine Cabeen used clear archetypal gestures, folk-inspired motifs, and various apparatuses to create a first act that was beautiful to behold. Each god used his or her apparatus to extend their performance and powers. Charly McCreary as Priapelga performed beautifully on the silks, giving life to humanity. Katrina Alston and Jeremy Hale as the dark gods, Veles and Chernobog, were suitably creepy on their trapeze. Jon McClintock as the god Perun and Amy Shuster as Fire performed a thrilling duet on the rope. When the gods, realizing they were too attached to humanity, withdrew themselves, Slav climbed on the backs of his fellow humans to reach up to heaven in a particularly effective (and affective) sequence. In their isolation, the gods grew more attached to humanity and when they returned, the entire stage lit up in a frenzy on and around each apparatus. The humans danced their archetypal folk motif around each god, including the dark ones who found themselves being drawn into the rapture. While it was hard to know where to look, this chaos served the story well. Everything about this first act was top notch and engrossing: the choreography, the costumes and Kane Mathis’s original music. You could not help but be turned into a child again with eyes full of wonder.”
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