press quotes
The New York Times
Brian seiber, february 2, 2016
“This already commonplace technology (Skype) is at the center of NOW., the 108th work of the veteran choreographer Pat Catterson. …eight excellent dancers performed—as did the Skype images of nine more, whose physical bodies were elsewhere, each dancer in a studio in South America , Europe or Japan. It was one of those the-‐way-‐we-‐live-‐now kind of works, both homespun and high-‐tech, with elements familiar and unsettingly novel. …(Catterson) wants her dancers to take her material—lucid Cunningham based phrases that sometimes wander into whimsy—and make it their own, a process that Skype facilitates and subtly alters….The in-‐the-‐moment, often playful physical communication between dancers on different continents, who may have never met in person, approached the usual interactions performers in the same room might have. Yet the divide was there, an enormous distance that symmetries and mirrorings oddly served to stress…. Same with the ensemble choreography in the other room, which cleverly emphasized the proximity of multiple bodies in lines and pile-‐ups. For all the questions it raised about time and technology, NOW. was ultimately a warm celebration of dancers and how they connect.”
Dance Enthusiast
mindy alof, February 24, 2016
“Rather wonderful program notes explained that much-awarded choreographer and internationally-admired teacher Pat Catterson had the good luck to have parents who were a professional ballroom dancing team and a paternal grandfather who was a tap dancer in Vaudeville… This (NOW.) is a work by a dancer who is not only comfortable in her thinking as a dancemaker but also takes her art’s past, its “then” for granted.”
Infinite Body
Eva Yaa Asantewaa, january 31, 2016
“ NOW., aside from being an experiment in bringing ocean-separated dancers together in real time via Skype,… was simply an afternoon of lovely movement by seventeen skilled and lovely movers spanning time zones. An audience member could freely move between and sit or stand in two studions. In Studio 2 individually performed duets overlapped in studio dancers with onscreen folks from places like Buenos Aires and Amsterdam and Tokyo. The design was most often clean, open, like fine sprightly lines on watercolor paper drawn in a confident hand. The energy was all in those lines, nothing overdramatic or extraneous, although perky playfrulness or watchful curiosity sometimes sparked between duet partners.”
Arts Journal/Dancebeat
Deborah jowitt, February 2012
“At the very end of Pat Catterson’s gentle beautifully crafted new dance, To Lie in the Sky, a voice recites the plangent opening lines of May Swenson’s ‘The Question’-.’Body my house, my horse, my hound/what will I do when you are fallen.’…These are not thoughts a young person might be drawn to. Catterson has been choreographing and dancing and teaching since the late 1960s. She’s garnered grants, awards, and fellowships (a Guggenehim 2011). The child of Vaudevillians, she has created innovative tap pieces, along with her barefoot forays into postmodernism. To Lie in the Sky unrolls like a road linking the countries that Catterson has traveled in and the road through a life.”
The Brooklyn Rail
siobhan burke, march 2012
“Imagine the body as a loyal companion, a trusted guide, a sturdy shelter that is, nonetheless, impermanent. When it begins its inevitable decline, what happens to the self….? This is what the poet May Swenson asks in ‘Question,’ and it’s what Pat Catterson, inspired by that jaunty yet mournful piece of writing, ponders with equal eloquence in her newest dance, To Lie in the Sky.”
Dance Magazine
wendy perron, 2010
“During the audience participation, Pat Catterson’s voice on tape asked us, “Have you changed the distance between your shoulders during this performance?” After a gentle litany of those kinds of questions, we heard, ‘Do you think you could ever murder someone?’…It was quite shocking, because first of all, there were several ways that Pat had drawn us into the performance—reading aloud, holding a rose, closing our eyes when asked. … You gotta admire the skill of a choreographer who can just weave that sort of info into the text, and into the choreography. Nothing, literal in the movement, of course, though the four dancers posed in little tableaux with a rose and a knife.”
Nancy Alfaro, 2006
”(Catterson’s) strong, appealing and honest voice relays taped stories she tells during her endearing solo ‘Hello Goodbye.’ She’s an energetic, positive force onstage, jumping, turning and visibly enjoying herself in a way that belies her age.”…”Catterson’s ‘Two Lydias’ was funny and poignant, with the dancers repeating the words ‘I’m Sorry,’ fueled by every emotion you can think of.”
The New Yorker
Liesl Schillinger, February 5, 2003
“Michael Moore should see Pat Catterson’s dance ‘Broken’ (from ‘Crowd Pleaser’) in which Pascal Rekoert…dances with a revolver—caresses it, chucks himself under the chin with it, and mock cocks it at a fashion model (Michele Curtis) as he struts to the jazz anthem ‘After You’ve Gone’…Catterson’s troupe is remarkable qua group, even when they move en masse, they act as individuals.”
The Village Voice
Deborah Jowitt, February 12, 2003
“…all the more bold then, that Pat Catterson used twenty-eight dancers in her intriguing new ‘Crowd Pleaser’.”
Elizabeth Zimmer, February 4, 2003
“She’s been making huge, ambitious modern and tap pieces for more than thirty years, and she’s one of the few downtown artists who makes sure everybody’s having a good time.”
Deborah Jowitt, November 28, 2000
“Catterson, down to earth and scrappy, a postmodernist with tap shoes in her bag, offered some intensely pleasurable visions. …Catterson’s sense of form creates drama without literal storytelling.”
Elizabeth Zimmer,September 21, 1999
“The most accomplished piece on this bill was Pat Catterson’s octet (‘Generations’) for dancers wielding yellow rubber balls. Free of personal angst and calling forth the appreciation of pure form, it was a blessing…”
Elizabeth Zimmer,September 1, 1996
“…and especially go to see Pat Catterson’s technical and narrative brilliance.”