Kim Brandstrup
Complete Works by Kim Brandstrup
Complete Works
A full list of dance works by Kim Brandstrup, including contemporary dance, ballet, opera and film.
The site is divided into a number of sections each functioning as a portal or shortcut to whatever aspects of the work you might be interested in.
In the 'Context' section the work is sub-divided into sections of special pursuits and themes that has marked the work at various stages i.e. the influence from cinema, the importance of music, the exploration into narrative
Click on the title of thumbnails to get full credits, reviews, photos and videos for each production.
Complete Works Projects
Death in Venice
La Scala
Teatro alla Scala, Milan, March, 2011
"There are subliminal echos of the Rite of Spring in the young boys games on the beach (choreographed with great natural ease by Brandstrup), where the one sacrificed is no longer the Chosen One (Tadzio) but the Elder (Aschenbach)."
Le Mond
Invitus Invitam
Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House Covent Garden , October 2010
The three giants of 20th-century dance overshadow most, but not Kim Brandstrup, the Danish choreographer whose new piece for The Royal Ballet held its own in a mixed bill that featured canonical work by all three of the mighty trio." ****
Evening Standard
Eidolon 1 & 2
Royal Danish Ballet Den Kongelige Ballet
Operaen, May 2010
" Eidolon is a playful, aesthetic and poetic series of beautiful images solidly rooted in a contemporary physical language"
Ann Jonsson, Danstidningen
Handel's Messiah
English National Opera
The London Coliseum, 27 November 2009
Kim Brandstrup reprised his fruitful creative association with director Deborah Warner to choreograph ENO’s new staging of Handel’s Messiah, marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death.
Goldberg
ROH2
Royal Opera House, September 2009
“an ingeniously organised, frequently humorous, gently enigmatic and wholly luminous hour and a quarter – a mini-masterpiece, in short.”
Jenny Gilbert, Independent on Sunday *****
DK60
Calos Acosta and Friends
London Coliseum, July 2009
"The programme’s best bit was Kim Brandstrup’s DK60, an exploration of give and take between a man and a woman, sensitively and passionately danced by Pieter Symonds and Miguel Altunaga."
Jeffery Taylor, Ballet Magazine
The Fairy Queen
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 21 June 2009
"Kim Brandstrup’s choreography is both discreet and exquisite"
Edward Seckerson . The Independent
Bird as Prophet
Alina Cojocaru
Queen Elizabeth Hall, May 2008
" - a solo specially made for Cojocaru by Kim Brandstrup, Bird as Prophet, set to wistful Schumann piano music, caught the very essence of this ballerina's quail-boned delicacy, as well as her heart-stopping spirituality. Bird as prophet? This birdwoman aims for the sky."
Jenny Gilbert, Independent on Sunday
Rushes - fragments of a lost story
The Royal Ballet
The Royal Opera House, 23 April 2008
“One of the richest and most dramatic new ballets seen on the stage of the Royal Opera House for a good long time. A sensual, fluid creation.”
Sarah Crompton, Daily Telegraph
The Seven Deadly Sins
Greek National Opera
Olympia Theatre, Athens , 25 November 2007
The narrative is thrust forward at a cinematic pace akin to a documentary or a newsreel - at times even a cartoon short.
Eurydice... She, So Beloved
Brothers Quay
October 2007
'Caressed by Hades (Kenneth Tharp), she dances a limp and deathly pas de deux (choreographed by Kim Brandstrup). Orpheus descends to reclaim her, but when his bid to lead her back to life fails, a series of sublimely strange final images show him shut out and all light extinguished.'
Rupert Christensen, Daily Telegraph
Death in Venice
English National Opera
The London Coliseum, 24 May 2007
“I don’t think I have seen the dance element better handled than by Warner and her choreographer Kim Brandstrup, whose routines of organised athleticism in the Games of Apollo seem to emerge organically out of the youthful playfulness of Tadzio and friends.”
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times
Ghosts – five studies in musical phrasing
Den Kongelige Ballet | The Royal Danish Ballet
Operaen, Copenhagen, 20 April 2007
“The greatest revelation of the evening was Ghosts by Kim Brandstrup... Brandstrup’s seductive choreography carves its own niche between narrative and absrtraction, as does Steven Scotts lighting design. The dancers are dancing in the light, and the audience are transported straight to heaven.”
Anne Middelboe Christensen, Information A
The Fall of the House of Usher
Bregenz Festival
Bregenz Festspielhaus , August 7 2006
“A unique and bewitching experiment…Lloyd and Brandstrup work seamlessly with a superb cast of singers and dancers”
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph
Pulcinella
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Hippodrome, 3 May 2006
“Brandstrup’s shows a master storyteller’s touch in his characterisations and the way he shows the relationship between Parker and Ambra Vallo’s superb Pimpinella. Highlight of the piece is undoubtedly a duet between the two, both acrobatic with lots of inventive lifting, and tender and lyrical. "
David Mead, Criticaldance.com
The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes
Brothers Quay
Koninck Studios, February 2006
THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES is the breathtakingly beautiful and long-awaited second feature film from the Quay Brothers.
Theme and Inversion
The Place Theatre , London
The Place Theatre , London, November 29, 2005
"Brandstrup's Theme and Inversion was a masterly evocation of a faltering love affair"
Judith Mackrell, The Guardian
Two Footnotes to Ashton
Royal Ballet
Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London , June 16 2005
“Kim Brandstrup’s playful pas de deux (danced to a Gluck aria) was the unrivalled hit of the evening….It was an instant classic, the kind of work you want to see again immediately. Whatever happened to encores?”
Louise Levene, The Sunday Telegraph
THE ANATOMY OF A STORYTELLER
Arc Dance Company
Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, 8 November 2004
"a mastery act...Brandstrup is a gifted storyteller and he sketches the tale with rapid wit... and the nine dancers could hardly be bettered"
The Guardian
SONGS OF A WAYFARER
Rambert Dance Company | Edinburgh Festival
The Playhouse, Edinburgh , August 2, 2004
“..superbly musical. Brandstrup’s articulation of Mahler’s restless dynamics and the range of his invention across solo and group dances never looked better.”
- Judith Mackrell, The Guardian
Afsked
Out of Denmark
Queen Elizbeth Hall , September 2003
:
Brandstrup is unusual as a chreographer in wanting to explore profound emotions…Afsked is a triumph”.
Jann Parry, The Observer
Hamlet
Arc Dance Company
The Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe, March 2003
“. Brandstrup’s vision, and his power to realise it, make a memorable work of art. Kim Brandstrup’s new Hamlet is his most powerful creation to date.”
Clement Crisp, Financial Times
Bounced Bach
Bare Bones
Hyppodrome, Birmingham, Febuary 2003
"Kim Brandstrup is known as a narrator of serious stories, yet in Bounced Bach he indulges himself with 15 blithe minutes of dance. The piece is set to a Swingle Singers revamp of Bach, which I find grisly listening. But Brandstrup is clever in balancing his choreography on the Swingles' wobble between high jinks and rigour."
Judith Marckrell, The Gaurdian
Brothers
Arc Dance Company
The Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe, March 2002
“[Brandstrup] has spent his career exploring ways of infusing his choreography with drama without resorting to straight-forward, linear-narrative storytelling. This is one of his finest, most fulfilling creations”
Allan Robertson ,Time Out London
Queen of Spades
Les Grandes Ballets Canadiennes
Theatre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts, Montreal, October 2001
“A royal flush!" "The Queen of Spades: The choreographer has played his cards very well by artfully blending modernity and classicism." "... the clarity of action, the delicacy of movement, the lovely music, and, most of all, the understated aestheticism leave you breathless throughout the ballet."
- Linda Boutin, Voir,
Elegy
Arc Dance Company/ Dance Umbrella
New Victoria Theatre, Woking , April 2001
"Its choreography actually combines a very Dostoyevskian intensity with the vividly specific physical personalities of its three superb dancers. The result, though spare, is engrossingly dramatic." “[Kim Brandstrup’s] best work to date for the British stage”
Judith Mackrell, The Guardian
Place of Stone
Norwegian Ballet
Den Norske Opera, Oslo, March 2001
“Place of Stone, set in the dramatic/erotic universe of Tennesee Williams, is a rare and unique experience of dance theatre. Intensely dramatic, wonderfully danced, it challenges the audiences with lasting effect – see for yourself”
Annette Mürer, Dagbladet 25 March 2001
The Return Of Don Juan
Arc Dance Company
Sadler's Wells, March 1999
“Brandstrup’s movement language is fluently lyrical, whirling arabesques cutting across the diagonals. He writes the mime straight into the dance, so the story is always on the move, while characters who lurk on the sidelines are given richly expressive cameos”
Debra Craine, The Times
Sleeping Beauty
Royal New Zealand Ballet
St James Theatre,
Wellington,New Zealand, May 1998
This beautiful new production is traditional at heart, pays homage to Petipa at all the right moments and is packed full of brilliant dancing, it is one of the company’s finest acheivements."
Rod Bliss , Sunday Star Times
Amor og Psyche
Royal Danish Ballet
Det Kongelige Teater, Copenhagen, May 1997
"The format is indisputable , with his first great full-length ballet, Kim Brandstrup demonstrated his ability to handle the big dramatic structure . With a cinematic drive in the editing and a swell of emotion in the form"
- Monna Dithmer, Politiken
Garden of Joy and Sorrows
Arc Dance Company
Wycombe Swan Theatre, High Wycombe, February 1997
“Images redolent of Persian miniatures inform steps and groupings associated with Bacchus and his entourage. There is a flicking delicacy in his movements with fleet, goatish running steps and falls for his satyrs.”
The Stage
The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other
Malmo Dramatic Theatre
Hippodrome , Malmo, Novemberr 1996
"The brilliant over aching concept which Kim Brandstrup maintains throughout his directorial debut , forces our attention from the individual onto the the overall structure"
Monna Dithmer,Politiken
Crime Fictions
Arc Dance Company
Wycombe Swan Theatre, High Wycombe, February 1996
Crime Fictions is Brandstrup at his most agile, a master storyteller and inventive dance maker whose own story is unfolding in new and triumphant chapters.
Evening Standard
Angels and Insects
Samuel Goldwyn Company
December 1995
Based on A.S Byatt's novel and directed by Phillip Hass the film included a number a danced scenes choreographed by Kim Brandstrup, ranging from a a big Victorian ball to Amazonian tribal dances.
Institute Benjamenta
Brothers Quay
Koninck Studios, 1995
The first feature film by the Brothers Quay. This visually stunning and poetic evocation of 'Jakob von Gunten' by Robert Walser has since its premiere in 95 become a cult classic.
Death in Venice
Metropolitan Opera
The Met, New York, January 1994
'It may be heresy to say so, but Kim Brandstrup's choreography for Tadzio, his family and friends seems far more relevant to the action than Frederick Ashton's stately Apollonian dances from 1974, which had more the character of a divertissement.'
Peter G. Davis, New York Magazine
Mysterier
The Royal Danish Ballet
The Royal Theatre , Copenhagen, 12 October 1994
"Like a magician he transforms the stage into a magnetic forcefield . His 'Mysterier' creates a cool atmosphere of anticipation . This is modern ballet with a classical sensability - a condensed dance drama created for the Royal's dancers per excellence. God save Brandstrup"
Monna Dithmer, Politiken
Saints and Shadows
Arc Dance Company
Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, August 1994
“Kim Brandstrup has a distinctive theatricality, a gift for creating and sustaining atmosphere so that every frame in his work glows with style. He can make magic and mystery too, as he does in his newest piece Saints and Shadows”
The Stage
Othello
Arc Dance Company/Irek Mukhamedov
Sadler's Wells, Feburary 1994
"Given Brandstrup’s confident and impassioned choreographic style with its strongly dramatic basis and cinematic fluency, Mukhamedov had no need to adapt his classical training. His part was brilliantly tailored to suit the vigorous and virtuoso Bolshoi technique "
Katherine Sorley Walker, Daily Telegraph
Eugene Onegin
Royal Opera
Royal Opera House Covent Garden , July 1993
Valery Gergiev headed a strong russian cast including Galina Gorchakova and Sergei Leiferkus in this production directed by John Cox.
Antic
Arc Dance Company
Derby Playhouse, January 1993
" Kim Brandstrup’s latest work for his excellent Arc Dance Company is Antic, which he claims is only based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But no other wordless evocation of the play I have ever seen has encapsulated so powerfully, so clearly, the heart of the matter. "
The Gaurdian
White Nights
English National Ballet
London Coliseum, July 1992
“I find the resultant work allusive, haunting. Brandstrup’s ability to fix emotion with gesture is wonderfully exact; his choreographic language is fluent, clear and true.”
Clement Crisp, Financial Times
Death in Venice
Royal Opera
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, March 1992
"Another that is new about this Death in Venice is the inventive choreography by Kim Brandstrup ,and a poetic danced performance as Tadzio by Giacomo Ciriaci, the stuff of which stars are made"
- The Observer
Mysteries
Arc Dance Company
Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, September 1991
"Brandstrup invents sharply-stylised mime and imaginative choreography that not only propels the narrative at a hectic pace, but defines the behaviour of his character with commendable clarity."
Evening Standard
The Dybbuk
London Contemporary Dance Theatre
the Place Theatre, London, April 1990
" There is, until the very last, little that is overtly dramatic or hysterical. There is, instead an inevitability and a developing sense of unease which argues Brandstrup’s constant concern for a clear and purposeful narrative language. It is a dance work having a consistent and uncompromising vision, and it is very welcome."
Financial Times
Peer Gynt
Arc Dance Company
The Place Theatre, London, March 1990
“Every stage of Ibsen’s stark morality play emerges with imaginative clarity and, as always, Brandstrup has assembled the right artistic collaborators as well as a responsive group of dancers…Peer Gynt shows his skill in narrative development and evocative stagecraft”
Daily Telegraph
West Side Story
Aalborg Theatre
Aalborg Theatre, Denmark, May 1989
Vanada
Arc Dance Company/London Sinfonietta
Queen Elizabeth Hall, June 1988
In the house of…
Arc Dance Company/London Sinfonietta
Queen Elizabeth Hall, June 1988
Deus ex Machina
Arc Dance Company/London Sinfonietta
The Place Theatre, London, November 1987
"Deux ex Machina, is something of a teaser with its decision to explore the world of a creator whose creatures assume lives of their own. It is odd, but ultimately gripping. "
Financial Times
I Want, I Want
Arc Dance Company
The Place Theatre, London, November 1986
Stardoom
Arc Dance Company
Riverside Studio, London, October 1986
The Soldiers Tale
Arc Dance Company/London Sinfonietta
Queen Elizabeth Hall, July 1986
Drawing freely on the characters and images suggested by the instrumental suite from Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, the second was perhaps a little less convincing in the sum of its many skilfully devised parts, while being equally decisive in its demonstration of the corporate gifts of the new, and splendidly theatrical young company.
Daily Telegraph
Three Arabesques
Arc Dance Company
The Place Theatre, London, May 1986
Dumbarton Oaks
UN Peace Child
Royal Albert Hall. London, September 1985
Dreaming the Blues
English Dance Theatre
Gulbenkian, Newcastle upon Tyne , May 1985
"In beautifully articulated and varied choreography, we find ourselves at the very heart of the blues.."
-Dick Godfrey, Newcastle Journal
Sidechamber
Spiral Dance Company
Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool, September 1984
Help Me Somebody
Spiral Dance Company
Everyman Theatre , Liverpool, January 1984
'Help Me Somebody' was KB's second commission for Spiral Dance Company and was an expansion of his early work from 1981 and a short 'Trio' from 1983 set to Talking Heads' 'I Zimbra'. Including a solo to 'Drugs' by David Byrne the trio was tightly paced and urban in its writing.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Spiral Dance Company
Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool, September 1983
"The Narrow Road to the Deep North" was Kim Brandstrup's first professional commission.The then artistic director of Spiral Dance Company Tim Lamford had seen 'Les Noces' which KB had choreographed while still a student at London School of Contemporary Dance and asked him to create a trio for the company.