Theme and Inversion

“A weighted look at a collapsing relationship, it features a wearied couple locked in a marathon dance of interdependence”

In recent years, Brandstrup has developed a new style, psychological dramas in short solos or duets. His piece for Yanowsky is one example. The new duet Theme and Inversion, also on this programme, is another. Natalia Thorn and Gildas Diquero lean against the wall, some distance apart. She reaches out to him; when her fingers touch him, she gives him a push. As a waltz theme cuts into the piano soundtrack, they sweep into couple dances - but Thorn leads Diquero, spinning or dipping him. The dynamic between this couple keeps changing, the dancers soft or wary.

"A notable exception, however, was Kim Brandstrup's solo for Zenaida Yanowsky, first seen at the Linbury. Restaged among a thicket of candles, her long limbs described inky arcs of melancholy. Brandstrup used shadows to dramatise his mercurial duet for Natalia Thorn and Gildas Diquero"

"Brandstrup's Theme and Inversion was a masterly evocation of a faltering love affair"