Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Her ability to plumb the depths of human existence is her hallmark. British choreographer Cathy Marston commands the art of storytelling and gives narrative ballet a fresh impetus. With 50 works presented in roughly a dozen different countries, she has forged a unique signature, immersing herself in great international literary works to express their essence, charting new territory every time.

In this piece, Marston engages with D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a work that describes the intense, unheard-of relationship between an aristocratic woman and an ordinary gamekeeper. The setting is puritanical England during the industrial age, in the wake of the First World War. The novel was banned from publication for an extended period and judged to be scandalous, too powerfully erotic and unsettling. In the end, it helped revolutionize mentalities and moral standards, and remains irresistibly sensual.