Katie Duck:

Duck's sturdy purposefulness makes even her most arbitrary actions seem part of a life-and-death odyssey' Judith Mackrell (England) 1980’s

'Katie Duck, with her magnetic presence, draws all the attention on her dancing and performance. All eyes are fixed on her as she emanates a halo that provokes the vibration of the public' Idoia de Lecumberri (Spain) 1990’s

“Talking Dancers” Festival, The Kitchen Theater

"A weave of text and dance achieved untraditionally". (Caption to the side)
"The weave of text and dance was achieved less traditionally with words and text serving as both text and aural accompaniment in Katie Duck's solo from "Love Poems". Ms Duck's voice and Alex Waterman's score for cello and electronically produced sound had a murmuring quality that complimented Ms Duck's desultory movement style in this meditation on love."
Jennifer Dunning, from the New York Times 2001

Katie Duck from the USA followed after the break, giving a very varied and accomplished solo performance. If it was completely improvised, she certainly made it work in an extraordinarily elegant way. She had an amusing rapport with the audience and some wonderfully grand dance scenes where she took in the whole space accompanied by Bach or Spanish folk songs. It was a joy to see her move. Katie Duck created an atmosphere; she gave the audience something. Whilst with other improvisational artists one wonders every once in a while if their own obsession with the actual process sometimes obscures the fact that the reason for standing in public, on stage, is first and foremost about sending something to the audience. This evening the improvisation roundabout turns again with new artists and the chance of a prize. Take a shot!
Erik Aschengreen - Berlingske Tidende 2002

TRICKS UP THE SLEEVE
Life enhancing meeting with the masters of the moment at Dansescenens
assembly of pioneers within the art of improvisation.
Did you see the fox? Says the dancer to another man who stands and makes
sounds on an otherwise empty stage. The question is directed mostly to the
audience who have, to an overwhelming extent, thronged into Dansescenens
four-day Improvisation festival, Meet the Parents. Improvisation has rather
a reputation for being much more fun to partake in than to watch. The
challenge however- whether on stage or in the studio is to capture the
moment? To grab the sensory images that suddenly hang in the air - and the
fox is gone.
Dance is, on the whole an art of the moment, Quintessentially of the
fleeting now, fluctuating, intangible and liable to disappear without a
trace. Nowhere is this more pure and apparent than with these dancers who
have specialized in the art of improvisation. For here it is exactly about
capturing the instance as opposed to a complete choreography and here was
the chance to see six international leaders of the pack step forward as
masters of the moment.
On the other hand Katie Duck surprised by sometimes cruising around the
foyer, sometimes throwing herself into a fluid dance on stage looking like a
tough little faun, only then to jump up on the audience and tell them that
her laundry gave her a kick because her husband hung it up with their cock.

Tough cookie!
The festivals two matriarchs crystallized each in their own way, the
improviser’s eternal question: dance as an attempt to articulate the language
of the body. Whilst the 66 yr old, Simone Forti with her tai chi-soft dance,
accompanied by Pierre Dørges drums and conch, induced small organisms to
creep forward, Deborah Hay edged around, demonstratively awkward and
speaking as though she was on rewind. A contrast of organic abundance as
healing power over disempowerment- and at the same time an indomitable
desire to find a language.One can only hope that the Cultural Ministry can learn to improvise, as Meet the Parents was sponsored among others, by the now abolished Development fund. There should also be a place for cultural initiatives that remind us
that it is necessary to have a past in order to see the future.
Monna Dithmer - Politiken 2006

Zorba the Greek

Katie Duck is the Zorba the Greek of improvisation: earthy, feeling every mode of sensuality, preposterous, irresistible, polymorphously perverse. Watching her dance is like watching her body think. She is responsive to every situation and obviously enjoys getting into trouble. This piece with K.J. Holmes and Justin Morrison is sort of a round robin of quasi-sexual encounters, punctuated by nicely ridiculous utterances ... It's about bodies moving, bodies being attracted to each other ... In the best improvisation you can't tell what's planned and what isn't, but it all seems to flow, and this was true here ...

Dance Magazine New York Wendy Perron  2007  

Fall Festival -- Movement Research with Danspace Project 2007        

Magpie:

...exciting dialectic between freedom and necessity.
Ballet International/Tanz Aktuell

The company has dedicated itself exclusively to improvisation and has attained a high level of mastery in it. Magpie is a perfect example for one to grasp the extent to which the engendering of the magical moment, of the fantastic, coincidental encounter, may, or perhaps must, rest on familiarity, mutual trust and being attuned to one another...A large share of its success was contributed by the fantastic musicians, who literally laid the ground for movement, with the erection of an electrifying frame of sound. Magpie was convincing by the virtue of the improvised having a choreographed effect, an exciting dialectic between freedom and necessity.

Bettina Schulte / Ballet International/Tanz Aktuell / 2000

A Pandora's box of energies - Capital Times

From the Netherlands, Magpie provided a rare and fantastic chance to share an evening with four magnificent talents.

A Pandora's box of energies and specifics with the most satisfying attention to the smallest moment in space and every movement considered, articulated and made part of the big picture. The challenges, intrigues, energies and peace that we shared at this unique performance were personal and of the moment.

2004  / Wellington New Zealand  / Reviewer: Deidre Tarrant

...astonishing and technically of highest caliber - Badusche Zeitung 2004

Their performance appears so homogenous that one tends to look for pre-fixed choreographic patterns. The fact that indeed there are none, makes their way to dance astonishing and technically of highest caliber. The improvisation of Magpie flows like a river, sometimes jumping over stones, sometimes being dammed, sometimes plunging over a barrier. When this happens something comical may slip into the performance. Such intermezzi continuously burst open the pure esthetical, the beauty of pure movement one can enjoy with Magpie on a high scale. Magpie playfully opens the Art of dance towards life just as the samplings and the casual talk on stage. A memorable evening. Who else could succeed in bridging casualness with such virtuosity?

Bettina Schulte / Badusche Zeitung / Germany 2004

Their mutual intimacy blurs the borders between dancers and musicians....They react so evidently and fluently to each impulse that one wants to consider the improvisation as set choreography. Their mutual intimacy blurs the borders between dancers and musicians...

Paola Pitton / Switzerland 2005