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Matthew Bourne
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Matthew Bourne
Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne OBE (born 13 January 1960) is a British choreographer. His productions contain many classic cinema and popular culture references and draw thematic inspiration from musicals, film noir and popular culture.
Popular novels and films usually form the basis for his work but Bourne's dance adaptations are sui generis, distinct from their originals. For example, his 1995 restaging of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake updated the ballet's setting, narrative and famously used all-male swans.
Workshops, collaboration and the inevitable dialogue with the original works inform many of his adaption's choreographical routines and thematic concepts. For his 1997 reimagining of Cinderella, Bourne invoked the Victorian and Edwardian eras by disseminating certain books and novels from those time periods amongst the production's cast members.
His New Adventures dance company's work covers ballet, contemporary dance, dance theatre and musical theatre.
His adaptations of Sleeping Beauty, Edward Scissorhands, The Red Shoes, Dorian Gray, and Lord of the Flies added new dimensions to these near-ubiquitous stories. Bourne's recent work, The Midnight Bell, sets Patrick Hamilton's 1929 novel in a pub, and Bourne's Romeo and Juliet put the tragedy's mental health and youth suicide themes centre stage.
In 2016, he was knighted as part of Queen Elizabeth II 2016 New Year Honours list for 'Services to Dance'.
Bourne was born on January 13, 1960, in Hackney, London, England. His mother was a secretary and his father worked for Thames Water. Bourne had no formal ballet training during his childhood. However, as a teenager, he was passionate about show business. He would frequently autograph hunt in London's West End after his mother took him to see Dame Edith Evans and Friends in 1974 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He wrote to and received letters back from Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin and Bette Davis. He was eighteen when he attended Sadler's Wells Theatre to see his first ballet, Swan Lake.
He worked as a filing clerk at the BBC and as an usher at The National Theatre for four years after graduating from William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London. At 20 he started studying at London's Laban Centre and began dance classes at 22. In 1985, he toured for two years with the centre's dance company. However, his interests gradually shifted from dancing to choreographing for television, theatre, and other dance companies. He completed a BA honours degree in contemporary dance in 1985. And in 1986, he graduated with an MA in dance performance. He co-founded the London-based company Adventures in Motion Pictures (AMP) in 1987. Bourne's radical reinterpretations of classic ballets set him apart as a choreographer. In 1992, he placed the Christmas Eve scene of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in a Victorian orphanage reminiscent of a Charles Dickens novel. His 1994 version of Filippo Taglioni's La Sylphide titled Highland Fling, was set in a modern-day Glaswegian housing project. Highland Fling was also the beginning of Bourne's creative alliance with the designer Lez Brotherston.
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Matthew Bourne
Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne OBE (born 13 January 1960) is a British choreographer. His productions contain many classic cinema and popular culture references and draw thematic inspiration from musicals, film noir and popular culture.
Popular novels and films usually form the basis for his work but Bourne's dance adaptations are sui generis, distinct from their originals. For example, his 1995 restaging of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake updated the ballet's setting, narrative and famously used all-male swans.
Workshops, collaboration and the inevitable dialogue with the original works inform many of his adaption's choreographical routines and thematic concepts. For his 1997 reimagining of Cinderella, Bourne invoked the Victorian and Edwardian eras by disseminating certain books and novels from those time periods amongst the production's cast members.
His New Adventures dance company's work covers ballet, contemporary dance, dance theatre and musical theatre.
His adaptations of Sleeping Beauty, Edward Scissorhands, The Red Shoes, Dorian Gray, and Lord of the Flies added new dimensions to these near-ubiquitous stories. Bourne's recent work, The Midnight Bell, sets Patrick Hamilton's 1929 novel in a pub, and Bourne's Romeo and Juliet put the tragedy's mental health and youth suicide themes centre stage.
In 2016, he was knighted as part of Queen Elizabeth II 2016 New Year Honours list for 'Services to Dance'.
Bourne was born on January 13, 1960, in Hackney, London, England. His mother was a secretary and his father worked for Thames Water. Bourne had no formal ballet training during his childhood. However, as a teenager, he was passionate about show business. He would frequently autograph hunt in London's West End after his mother took him to see Dame Edith Evans and Friends in 1974 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He wrote to and received letters back from Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin and Bette Davis. He was eighteen when he attended Sadler's Wells Theatre to see his first ballet, Swan Lake.
He worked as a filing clerk at the BBC and as an usher at The National Theatre for four years after graduating from William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London. At 20 he started studying at London's Laban Centre and began dance classes at 22. In 1985, he toured for two years with the centre's dance company. However, his interests gradually shifted from dancing to choreographing for television, theatre, and other dance companies. He completed a BA honours degree in contemporary dance in 1985. And in 1986, he graduated with an MA in dance performance. He co-founded the London-based company Adventures in Motion Pictures (AMP) in 1987. Bourne's radical reinterpretations of classic ballets set him apart as a choreographer. In 1992, he placed the Christmas Eve scene of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in a Victorian orphanage reminiscent of a Charles Dickens novel. His 1994 version of Filippo Taglioni's La Sylphide titled Highland Fling, was set in a modern-day Glaswegian housing project. Highland Fling was also the beginning of Bourne's creative alliance with the designer Lez Brotherston.