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Matthew Bourne. born 13 January 1960. Youth. Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney, London in 1960. Despite having never taken a dance class, he ran and directed various amateur Dance Companies in his teenage years.
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Matthew Bourne born 13 January 1960
Youth • Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney, London in 1960. • Despite having never taken a dance class, he ran and directed various amateur Dance Companies in his teenage years. • In 1982 he enrolled at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance (now simply Laban) in Deptford, southeast London, where he was awarded a B.A. in Dance Theatre. • For his final year (1986) he danced with the Laban Centre's Transitions Dance Company.
Late Bloomer • Matthew Bourne is widely hailed as the UK’s most popular and successful Choreographer/Director. • He is the creator of the world’s longest running ballet production, a five - time Olivier Award winner, and the only British director to have won the Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography. • This despite starting training as a dancer at the comparatively late age of 22.
AMP • Matthew danced professionally for 14 years creating many roles in his own work. • In 1999 he gave his final performance playing The Private Secretary in the Broadway production of Swan Lake. • Matthew Bourne was the Artistic Director of his first company, ADVENTURES IN MOTION PICTURES, from 1987 until 2002. • During those 15 years AMP became the UK’s most innovative and popular dance/theatre company creating an enormous new audience for dance with it’s groundbreaking work both at home and Internationally.
New Adventures • In 2002 Matthew launched his latest company, NEW ADVENTURES – a maverick modern dance company - with two highly successful productions. • Play Without Words premiered as part of the National Theatre’s Transformations Season. • Matthew Bourne’s revised Nutcracker! also premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2002 and became an instant popular hit with audiences and critics.
Swan Lake • Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake is a piece of ballet-influenced contemporary dance. • The ballet is based loosely on the Russian romantic ballet Swan Lake, from which it takes the music by Tchaikovsky and the broad outline of the plot. • Stylistic inspiration also came from the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds. • The ballet is particularly known for having the parts of the swans danced by men rather than women --including the Odette/Odilerole.
Swan Lake • Bourne’s version “brings a new twist to an old classic with this production of Swan Lake. Taking advantage of the public's preoccupation with the ups and downs of the royal family, Bourne has set his story in the modern era. • “Its universal threads--as Bourne suggests, the need to be held and understood is common to us all--are synthesized in the utterly moving conclusion as the Swan cradles the lifeless Prince and raises him to a better place. Swan Lake becomes a human, rather than simply romantic, tragedy. “--Piers Ford
Longest running ballet… • The ballet has proved enormously successful, with touring companies playing to sold-out houses around the world, and it has won a string of prestigious awards. • The ballet was called "a miracle" in a Time Out New York review. • However, Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake has also been rebuked by some who resent changes to the standard Russian classic.
New Works • In 2005, New Adventures presented its most ambitious project to date. Matthew Bourne’s production Edward Scissorhands, based on Tim Burton’s classic film. • His film work includes television productions of his stage work including Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake (Emmy nomination), The Car Man and Nutcracker!
Musical Theatre • Matthew has also created choreography for several major revivals of classic musicals including Cameron Mackintosh’s productions of Oliver! (1994) and My Fair Lady (Olivier Award 2002) as well as the National Theatre’s revival of South Pacific (2001). • In 2004 Matthew Co-Directed (with Richard Eyre) and Choreographed (with Stephen Mear) the West End and Broadway hit musical Mary Poppinsfor which he won an Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer.
Dorian Gray • His latest hit show for New Adventures, Dorian Gray, based on Oscar Wilde’s gothic masterpiece, premiered at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival, and became the most successful dance production in the Festival’s 62 year history. • In Bourne’s contemporary version , some of the gender roles have been reversed to update the classic story.