Garden of Joy and Sorrows

“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.”


"Garden of Joys and Sorrows used the 1980 score by Sofia Gubaidulina, a spare and melancholic piece of writing which provides the austere aural landscape for the island of Naxos, where Ariadne is abandoned by her beloved Theseus and is consoled by Bacchus. The garden evoked by Brandstrup's choreography, and particularly by the Maenads and Satyrs who inhabit it, is a creepy place: soothing one minute, and disturbing the next"

"Brandstrup's dance fixes on a moment in the story of Ariadne, where, abandoned by Theseus, she longs to die, but is consoled by Bacchus. His choreography is thus full of swooning falls, of movement infused with a heady longing for oblivion contrasted with the sharp-footed jumps of satyrs and the deftly oriental dance of Bacchus himself"

"Brandstrup's forte is the revelation of subtle feeling. Garden uses a fascinatingly resonant score by Sophia Gubaidulina as basis on which to study the theme of Ariadne abandoned on Naxon by Theseus, and then comforted by Bacchus. The force of Ariadne's passion is clear, as is the reluctance of Theseus (that most boring of classic heroes) to respond to it, and Brandstrup makes choreographic capital from the contrast with Bacchus's warm and loving acceptance of Ariadne's love. It is a work of psychological optimism and pertinent imagery"