THE ANATOMY OF A STORYTELLER

“The work as a whole created a darkly memorable picture of a very complex and strange man..”

"Brandstrup intermingles fact and fairy tale excellently....It is done splendidly by a distinguished cast"
"To make a staging for the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth , who better than Kim Brandstrup? Danish-born, a choreographer with a fine allusive sense of narrative, an artist sensitive to historical period, he has produced a remarkable work of commemoration... to Brandstrup and his team and to the Linbury for providing so fine a setting, admiration and thanks. This production is among the best - because it is so stylish- things that Covent Garden show us"

"Beautifully performed, Brandstrup’s latest creation stands out for its rarefied atmospheres and Hoffmanesque imagery."

“Kim Brandstrup is a choreographer with an exceptional ability to create simple, beautiful and atmospheric stage images. That is also true of his new stage work, Hans Chritian Andersen – Anatomy of a Storyteller.”

"a mastery act...Brandstrup is a gifted storyteller and he sketches the tale with rapid wit... and the nine dancers cold hardly be bettered"

"Brandstrup expertly guides us through highlights from Andersen's back catalogue, including an imaginative take on the famed Mermaid. Gildas Diquero turns in an excellent performance as the author. HIs is a standout turn among a uniformly excellent cast, all perfectly attuned to Brandstup's lyrical line in narrative dance making"

"Beautifully performed by artists such as Cathy Marston, Matthew Hart, Kenneth Tharp, Jenny Tattersall and Gildas Diquero as well as the rest of Arc Dance Company, Brandstrup's latest creation stands out of it rarefied atmospheres and Hoffmanesque imagery."

"As Andersen, Gildas Diquero combines gawky, nervous fluidity with mimetic articulation, almost melting in self-deprecation, he flinches from the very human contact he craves... Brandstrup has a fine supporting cast: Matthew Hart, Cathy Marston, Bernadette Iglich, Frederik Persson, Clemmie Sveass, Jenny Tattersall and long time Arc artists Kenneth Tharp and Joy Constantinides. All are dab hands at negotiating Brandstrup's writing and use of body language."

"Typically production standards are tip-top. Brandstrup's collaborators - notably lighting designer Tina MacHugh and image-makers The Brothers Quay - achieve great things using deep shadow, silhouettes, mesh screens both behind and in front of the action on which stage-size video images create a fourth dimension. Atmosphere is everything in Brandstrup's work and there are extended moments in Anatomy of a Storyteller when I couldn't imagine anything more powerful or more beautiful."

"... the tragic tale of the Little Mermaid... was beautifully conceived and ravishingly danced by Matthew Hart and Clemmie Sveass."