Matthew Bourne

This article is about the chorerographer. For the British jazz musician, see Matthew Bourne (musician).

Matthew Bourne
Melbourne, Australia, 2006
Born	13 January 1960 (1960-01-13) (age 51) Walthamstow, London, England
Occupation	Theatre director, choreographer, dancer
Website
http://www.new-adventures.net

Matthew Bourne OBE (born 13 January 1960) is a British classical and contemporary ballet and dance choreographer.

Biography

Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney, London in 1960. He went to William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London. From the ages of 14 to 16 he was an avid autograph hunter, attending most West End opening nights and waiting outside Stage Doors and top London Hotels. In 1978 he left full-time education and worked in various jobs at the BBC (filing clerk), Keith Prowse Theatre Agents (selling theatre tickets) and The National Theatre (bookshop and ushering). Despite having never done 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. After graduation he formed the dance company Adventures In Motion Pictures with fellow directors, and friends, Emma Gladstone and David Massingham. He has worked as a professional choreographer and director since 1987, becoming sole artistic director of AMP in 1991 and New Adventures in 2002. He now lives in Islington, London and Brighton, East Sussex.

Choreographer

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. Bourne has been said to be the most audience conscious artist. Bourne does not go into detail about his works because he wants the audience to have their own interpretations of his works.

Bourne started training as a dancer at the comparatively late age of 22. He studied Dance Theatre and Choreography at Laban) graduating in 1985 but spending a further year with the college’s performance company Transitions. Bourne 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.

Adventures in Motion Pictures

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 its groundbreaking work both at home and internationally (works include: - Spitfire, The Infernal Galop, Town and Country, Deadly Serious, Nutcracker!, Highland Fling, Swan Lake, Cinderella and The Car Man).

New Adventures

In 2002 Bourne launched his latest company, New Adventures, with two highly successful productions. Play Without Words premiered as part of the National Theatre’s Transformations Season and went on to win Best Entertainment and Choreography at that year's Olivier Awards. It then embarked on a World Tour and premiered in New York, Los Angeles and Moscow in 2005. Matthew Bourne’s revised Nutcracker! also premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2002 and became an instant popular hit with audiences and critics, returning the following year for a second sell-out season. It became the first ballet to be screened by BBC1 in over 20 years and then also embarked on a world tour.

New Adventures acclaimed revival of one of Bourne’s most popular works, the “Romantic wee ballet”, Highland Fling and Bourne’s 10th Anniversary production of Swan Lake have also reached new audiences through extensive International touring, including seasons in Asia, Australia, Russia, Europe and the USA. New Adventures has continued to revive Bourne's work, including The Car Man in 2007 and Nutcracker! in 2008.

In 2005, New Adventures presented its most ambitious project to date. Matthew Bourne’s production of Edward Scissorhands, based on Tim Burton’s classic film, received its world premiere at Sadlers Wells Theatre. After breaking box office records over an 11-week season, the production toured the UK, before international debuts in Asia and a 6 month tour of the USA. The unprecedented success of New Adventures relationship with Sadler's Wells Theatre was recognised in 2006 by the invitation to become Resident Company. Matthew Bourne is also a Resident Artist at Sadlers Wells.

Bourne 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 Bourne Co-Directed (with Richard Eyre) and Choreographed (with Stephen Mear) the West End and Broadway hit musical Mary Poppins, for which he won an Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer.

He has collaborated on projects with leading directors, Trevor Nunn, Richard Eyre, Sam Mendes, Yukio Ninagawa and John Caird and has created dances and roles for such wide-ranging performers as Jonathan Pryce, Lynn Seymour, Dawn French, Adam Cooper, Julie Walters, Rowan Atkinson and Michael Sheen.

His film work includes television productions of his stage work including Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake (Emmy nomination), The Car Man and Nutcracker! and original work such as the John Betjamin-inspired Late Flowering Lust with Sir Nigel Hawthorne and his own AMP Company in 1993.

Bourne was the subject of a South Bank Show in 1997 and in 1999 he presented Channel 4’s Dance 4 Series. The channel 4 documentary Bourne To Dance, which he also presented, was broadcast on Christmas Day 2001. His production of Swan Lake is featured in Stephen Daldry’s hit film Billy Elliot.

Bourne choreographed his own version of "Swan Lake". In the traditional "Swan Lake" the prince falls in love with a female swan. In Bourne's version of "Swan Lake" the beloved falls in love with a male swan. His interpretation of "Swan Lake" stirred up controversy because many said it was the gay version of "Swan Lake" He took a risk with "Swan Lake" because it was risky and something his audience would not be used to. As Bourne points out, "It's more to do with dancing than with sexuality. A male dancer, whether gay or straight, fits into a relationship with a female partner very happily. It's something your taught, and it fits, it feels right, the lifting and all that stuff. Getting away from that, making a convincing love duet, a romantic, sexual duet, for two men that is comfortable to do and comfortable to watch-I dont know if you can. I've never seen it done." ^[1]

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. Later in 2008 he co-directed and choreographed Cameron Mackintosh’s latest revival of Oliver! with Rowan Atkinson, which is currently playing at London’s Drury Lane Theatre.

Matthew Bourne has twice been nominated as Best Director at the Olivier Awards, and his achievements in choreography have been recognised with over 30 international awards, including The Evening Standard Award, The South Bank Show Award, Time Out Award and the Astaire Award for Dance on Broadway. In the 2001 New Years Honours, Bourne was awarded an OBE for Services to Dance and in 2003 he was the recipient of the prestigious Hamburg Shakespeare Prize for the Arts. In 2007 he was awarded Honorary Doctorates from Leicester, Bedford and the Open Universities. In 2008 he was the recipient of a Special Award from the TMA (Theatrical Managers Association) for services to UK touring.

Work

• 1989: "As You Like It" (RSC)
• 1989: "Show Boat" (musical - Malmo - Sweden)
• 1990: "Children Of Eden" (musical)
• 1991: Town and Country
• 1992: Deadly Serious
• 1992: Percy of Fitzrovia
• 1992: "Nutcracker!"
• 1992: Infernal Galop (reworked)
• 1993: Drip: a Narcissistic Love Story(BBC TV)
• 1993: "Late Flowering Lust" (BBC TV)
• 1994: Highland Fling
• 1994: "Oliver!"
• 1995: Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake
• 1997: Cinderella
• 1998: "Swan Lake" Broadway
• 2000: Matthew Bourne's The Car Man
• 2001: "My Fair Lady" (musical)
• 2001: "South Pacific" (musical)
• 2002: Nutcracker! - New Production
• 2002: Play Without Words
• 2004: Mary Poppins
• 2005: Edward Scissorhands
• 2008: Dorian Gray
• 2009: "Oliver!" (Major Revival)
• 2010: "Cinderella"

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1999 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical – Swan Lake
• 1999 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography – Swan Lake
• 1999 Tony Award Best Choreography – Swan Lake
• 1999 Tony Award Best Direction of a Musical – Swan Lake
• 2000 Evening Standard Award for Musical Event – The Car Man
• 2005 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Original Choreography – Mary Poppins
• 2007 Drama Desk Award Unique Theatrical Experience – Edward Scissorhands
• 2007 Honorary Doctor of Arts from De Montfort University, Leicester.

Nominations

• 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreography - Oliver!
• 2000 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance – The Car Man
• 2005 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical – Play Without Words
• 2005 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography – Play Without Words
• 2007 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography – Edward Scissorhands
• 2007 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography – Mary Poppins
• 2007 Tony Award Best Choreography – Mary Poppins

References

1. ^ "Swans' Way; Why Matthew Bourne's dances are different." The New Yorker VV (2007): 40-46. NewYorker.com. 28 Sept. 2011 <http://www.lexisnexis.com/Inacui2api/delivery/PrintDoc.do?JobHandle=2825>.

Further reading

• Macaulay, Alastair (ed.) (1999). Matthew Bourne and His Adventures in Motion Pictures: In Conversation with Alastair Macaulay. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 057119706X. 

External links

• Matthew Bourne at the Internet Broadway Database
• Matthew Bourne at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website of Matthew Bourne's company, New Adventures
• Official website of Friends of New Adventures
• Official website of the Edward Scissorhands North American tour
• Cunningham, John (2000-09-16). "The Guardian profile: Matthew Bourne: Coming on in leaps and bounds". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,,368961,00.html. 
• Mackrell, Judith (2002-11-19). "Up close and personal: The man behind Adventures in Motion Pictures tells Judith Mackrell why he is giving up on glitz and going back to basics". The Guardian. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/christmas2002/story/0,,853101,00.html. .
• "Spotlight on Matthew Bourne". BBC Blast. Archived from the original on 2008-04-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20080406061119/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/dance/people/matthew_bourne.shtml. Retrieved 2007-10-09.  – an interview with Matthew Bourne with advice for teenagers.

Persondata
Name	Bourne, Matthew
Alternative names
Short description	British ballet and dance choreographer
Date of birth	13 January 1960
Place of birth	Walthamstow, London, England, United Kingdom
Date of death
Place of death