Matthew Bourne

Sir Matthew Bourne (OBE) is a British choreographer, dancer and artistic director of dance company, New Adventures.

He is best known for his unique re-imaginings of traditional ballet, such as his 1995 production of Swan Lake, where he replaced the traditionally female corps-de-ballet with a male ensemble.[1] Swan Lake (Bourne) went on to be the longest running ballet in London's West End and New York City's Broadway.[2] The production earned him the title as the only British director to win both 'Best Choreographer' and 'Best Director' in the same year at the 1999 Tony Awards.[3] On the iconic appeal of Swan Lake at the time, The New Yorker said, 'what was important about the gender switch was that it made this old love story romantic again, by making it seem dangerous.'[4]

In 2016 he was knighted as part of Queen Elizabeth II 2016 New Year Honours list for 'Services to Dance'.[5] His admirers say that he has 'broadened the definition of ballet in a way that has consistently appealed to young audiences' Sarasota Herald-Tribune.[6]

Bourne has been creating notable works in dance, musical theatre and film since 1986. He has created many productions with his dance companies New Adventures and AMP,[7] as well as choreographed musicals for the West End such as Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady.[8] Productions include The Red Shoes (ballet), The Car Man (Bourne) (based on Bizet's Carmen) and Edward Scissorhands (dance) among many others. The company has often reinvented many traditional Tchaikovsky ballets, such as The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, placing them in a new, filmic context to enliven their potential for storytelling for a modern audience. Bourne has also adapted famous cinema and literature for the stage, such as a dance version of Tim Burton's 1990 film Edward Scissorhands, Hans Christian Andersen and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948 film) and Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Bourne is described after an interview with the New Yorker in 2007 as a particularly 'audience-conscious artist'.[4] Bourne highlights the importance of intervals for the audience, "in the second half they’re always more demonstrative, because they’ve talked to their friends and decided that it’s O.K. to enjoy it."[4] He goes on to explain how he always asks company dancers to offer warmth in their curtain calls, saying "I pride myself on my company’s curtain calls, I really do. I think you won’t see a nicer curtain call than from my lot."[4]

The company, formerly known as 'Adventures in Motion Pictures' (see New Adventures (dance company)) was first established in 1987 by a group of Laban graduates. After the success of Swan Lake, AMP (Adventures in Motion Pictures) was heading down a highly commercial route. Long-running international tours of Swan Lake meant the company felt headed for world domination, which made Bourne uneasy, "I felt that I was running an office rather than a company".[9] The pressure to create highly profitable productions left Bourne feeling creatively stifled. Feeling the need to be closer to his productions and seeking room to experiment and work with a smaller team, Bourne and AMP's co-director Katherine Doré eventually made the decision to split.

In 2000, he started a new company, New Adventures, which was officially formed with Managing Director Robert Noble OBE (also Deputy Managing Director of Cameron Mackintosh) and Bourne's long time collaborator, and former dancer, Etta Murfitt MBE as Associate Artistic Director. This enabled Bourne and the company to scale down and create low budget shows, working in close collaboration with the dancers and artists who contribute hugely to his creative process.[9] Esteemed dance critic Judith Mackrell notes, 'there were moments in his career when Bourne could easily have let himself become a commercial commodity and squandered his talent (The Guardian).'[9]

Matthew started his dance training at the comparatively late age of 22 and trained at Trinity Laban in London[10] and before that he describes himself as self-taught. He explains to The Guardian “my first ever dance class was my audition for dance college when I was 21”. In the same interview, he paints a picture of his younger self as a keen autograph hunter, frequently taking the bus to the West End to meet the stars of the stage, and later being starstruck when making Barbara Streisand's Christmas List.[10]

Bourne is now in a long-term relationship with contemporary dance choreographer Arthur Pita, who has been penned as the 'David Lynch of dance' (Guardian) who says of their relationship, "we talk about work a lot, but it's never competitive, our styles are so different".[11] The two met through Bourne's production of Swan Lake, when Bourne was director and Arthur was a swan.[12]

In addition to his highest accolade the 2016 honorary title of knighthood, Bourne has also received multiple awards and award nominations, including the Laurence Olivier Award, Tony Award, and Drama Desk Award, and has also received several honorary doctorates of arts from UK universities.[13]

[14]

• Spitfire – 1988
• The Infernal Galop – 1989
• Town & Country – 1991
• Watch with Mother – 1991
• Deadly Serious – 1992
• Percy of Fitzrovia – 1992
• Nutcracker! – 1992
• Highland Fling – 1994
• Swan Lake – 1995
• Cinderella – 1997
• The Car Man – 2000
• Play Without Words – 2002
• Edward Scissorhands – 2005
• Dorian Gray – 2008
• Lord of the Flies – 2011
• Early Adventures – 2012
• Sleeping Beauty – 2012
• The Red Shoes – 2016
• Romeo and Juliet – 2019
• The Midnight Bell – 2021

Film & TV

• Drip: A Narcissistic Love Story – 1993 BBC TV
• Late Flowering Lust – 1993 BBC TV
• Swan Lake – 1995, 2011 & 2019
• Nutcracker! – 2001 & 2022
• Matthew Bourne's Christmas – 2012 Channel 4
• The Car Man – 2001 & 2015
• Sleeping Beauty – 2013
• Cinderella – 2017
• Romeo and Juliet – 2019

• Macaulay, Alastair, ed. (1999). Matthew Bourne and His Adventures in Motion Pictures: In Conversation with Alastair Macaulay. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-19706-X.

• Matthew Bourne at the Internet Broadway Database
• Matthew Bourne at IMDb
• Cunningham, John (16 September 2000). "The Guardian profile: Matthew Bourne: Coming on in leaps and bounds". The Guardian.
• Mackrell, Judith (19 November 2002). "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..
• "Spotlight on Matthew Bourne". BBC Blast. Archived from the original on 6 April 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2007. – an interview with Matthew Bourne with advice for teenagers.