Q: What has been your professional dance journey?

Cat: Pre-professional I grew up in a suburb outside of Detroit Michigan and started dancing when I was 8 with Mari Lou Parker.  She has a small studio, Gracepoint Dance Center, and she is an amazing teacher. That was my pre-professional training.  I was also a swimmer and a runner and went to UM for BFA in dance.  My professional experience started when I went to the PLAYGROUND NYC.  I was blown away at the dance community and opened my eyes to new ways of moving. I wrote grants for Andrea Miller and then danced with Shannon Gillen and Shen Wei Dance Arts and then moved to Israel.  I was not in Batsheva but trained with the dancers everyday and it felt like a professional setting, then straight to Marcat. I met Mario with Gillim in NYC.

Mario: Pre-professional I was a runner, I wasn't into dance at all.  I was doing zumba on the side and I decided to dance hip hop and then I moved into Center of Contemporary Art in Seville when I was 20, so that was my pre-professional.  There were many choreographers coming through and one, Jennifer Muller (ballerina with Jose Limon but has her own company), offered me a contract after seeing my dance. So I moved to NYC with a contemporary dancer. I then went to Gillim Dance my second year in NYC and did a workshop with Batsheva in NYC.  Then 2 years in ensemble with Batsheva and 2 years in main company.  After, I started Marcat with Catherine and now we are here in Spain.

Q: What have been some challenges in your pre-professional or professional dance career?

CAT: The biggest challenge has been learning that a ‘no’ is a ‘yes’. I find that to be true that you audition and apply for so much and when you get the ‘no’, sometimes you think it was for me but usually that ‘no’ turns into a ‘yes’ that it was in your greatest good that it wasn't for you and if it doesn't happen, something better meant for you occurs. I think that is how to face rejection. Pre-professional also when I was in NYC the cost of training was crazy and that was a challenge for me. Dance is art and you want to practice everyday and in order to train you need to pay for these classes and now here in Spain we don't have rent in the same way and as an artist to not have that economic weight, I don’t feel this in Spain.

Mario: Adapting. Adapt to community, different languages, and life. I loved my experience but thinking I needed to move and adapt to the country, culture, and langues. When I moved to NYC I didn't speak any English and when I moved to Israel I didn't speak any Hebrew. I also didn't have family in NYC and Israel and this was hard. Adapting to the situation the first three weeks of when you move even when you travel you need to adapt to everything so I feel like that creates a challenge even now when we are on tour. It is a beautiful challenge.

Q: Do you believe dance can be a platform for social justice topics? If so, how? and/or Have you used your art form to make a difference?

Mario: When you read a newspaper it is very literal and it is a box you can not go out of.  When you see dance it could be a box, but inside the box there could be many different stories that without even noticing you're in but you don't even know... Even if it is literal the way we talk is not through words, it is our bodies and our body has colors, energy, and many things which is what speaks so I feel that the dance can create stories even more real and powerful than any other stories.

Q: What inspires you and drives you forward as an artist and a person?

Mario: I think about connecting a lot. I recognize to have time is very inspiring for me because it is less stressful and of course the environment of being free in nature and the fact we live in a remote place also makes you think about what is happening right now. We are all in nature and that is very inspiring to keep on working as a choreographer, dancer, anything.

Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a performing artist?

Cat: It happened quite abruptly for Mario because outside of China, Italy and Spain are the most affected. Before Italy got super bad, Mario had been commissioned by a company there for a new evening length work, and I was supposed to go join him three days after he did and I didn’t go. I kept hearing the news getting worse so I stayed in Spain. Mario stayed in Italy and was working everyday.  One day he showed up to work and the doors were closed, he was told he can not enter the building or create.  Mario got the last flight to Spain before the airports were closed from Italy.  And I only got on the plane because I felt healthy and I was in kind of a quarantine because I was out of the bad areas in Italy. It affected us drastically because it was one of our biggest commissions of the year and aside from that we had our second year of the UM study abroad program which was cancelled and touring throughout Spain with different festivals and also performance in Italy. Honestly the effects of this we don't even know yet.  Everything is said to be postponed. Most of the shows are postponed so it may happen in the future, but we have 5-6 months without work.

As a company we ask ourselves what we can make of the situation. Mario has been creating choreography on the terrace and we have been connecting with old artist friends from around the world and we have time to think about what our values are and what we want to do going forward. There are benefits. The beauty is that artists and people are sharing their vulnerability and through this vulnerability we are being able to see. Hofa Sheckter shared this video segment of him talking with music that I wouldn't have been able to see.  There is gaga offered 8 times a day when before I would never be able to do that. There is a sensitivity and connectivity that is really beautiful that is affecting us.

Mario: The biggest thing for me is the fact that this is happening. Marcat and the inspiration for the company comes from nature. We live in nature and right now we take this stop because nature needs to breathe right now and we feel like this is normal to say but it is needed. I know people are passing away but this is a way of nature talking to us saying you need to care for me more and as humans you have the power for that and this is why it doesn't feel drastically negative. There is something behind this.  There is something beyond us that needs to be fixed. It feels like we are fixing it right now for staying at home and for having a hard time because we now know the world and universe are having a hard time because of us and now nature is telling us to stay home and have a hardness like nature does to understand.

Q: How do you think we can continue to create and share art during this time?

People can perform for people. Now one of our shows is being shown in the hospitals here in Spain. The government asked if they could use one of our videos to show in the hospitals and that is so beautiful. Teaching classes online. For me as an artist I feel there is so much information online that I feel like I want to take class but I don't feel I can give the classes. There is oversaturation on the internet but that being the case we give company class online to our dancers and anything happening online we try to support other artists and take (cat) we can use the time even if you don't have the big spaces you can write and create in your mind.

Mario: This is a time that gives us time and in order to create you need time and I feel that this is a gift right now to have time to have this word in your hands.