Today in the world of choreography there are not that many names, at the mention of that, people would say "yes, I know him, I saw his production of "Swan Lake", it was unbelievable". But such choreographers exist and it is a fact. This choreographer nowadays is Matthew Bourne. The name of these individual more than once adorned the headlines, the front pages and covers of glossy magazines. Tickets for his performances are sold of shelves in the blink of an eye, and the number of awards, nominations and prizes are hard to count on both fingers on your hand. Before Matthew Bourne achieved success and public recognition, that he has now, this choreographers have made a long way in a thousand miles, which he started with the first step made in childhood.
Matthew Bourne, according to Whitney, was born in London on the 13 Jan 1960. Since the very childhood, Bourne was a fan of theatre and musical films and often produced his own productions of the seen movie and theatre works. Bourne started attending dancing classes at the age of twenty two, two years after he began studying at London’s Laban Centre. Bourne, as a part of Transitions (centre’s dance company) was touring for two years, after he graduated from Laban Centre in 1985 with a bachlors degree in dance theatre. In 1987 Bourne cofounded Adventures Motion Pictures (AMP) and taking part in this and other dancing companies, as long as his choreographic works for theatre and tv, have decreased the number of his dance appearances.
On account of Bourne there are dozens of choreography pieces produced, each of which is performed perfectly well, both in terms of selection of musical accompaniment, and of the choreography, the dancers selection, choice of dance floor and costumes.
Bourne, whose style is “radical reinterpretation of classic ballet”, has once set the Christmas Eve scene of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker in a Victorian orphanage. In 1966 Bourne, of whom Times Magazine said "Matthew Bourne is the Worlds most popular living dance maker", receives Laurence Oliver Award for restaging Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake in which the story goes about a prince in a contemporary and disfunctional family. Bourne, seeing his swans as strong and aggressive creatures has made men dance in “knee-length shorts made with layers of shredded silk that resembled feathers” (Whitney, 2015). In the interview to The Guardian journalist Anna Tims, of his own work Bourne says “I realised that, because I was taking on such a familiar work, I had to come up with something original, with its own identity, for modern audiences” (Tims, 2013). And Bourne has definetly did what he wanted to do, the play was a total success and encouraged The Telegraph for a loud title of the article, which said “Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, review: 'witty, menacing, lyrical and wild' ” (Ward, 2013).
But creativity of Bourne is not limited alone to Swan Lake, on the account of the choreographer there are many other productions, which for many years have placed him under the spotlight, and have obliged to give interviews to newspapers and glossy magazines. Among these choreographic pieces are Spitfire (1988), The Infernal Galop (1989), Town and Country (1991), Deadly Serious (1992), Nutcracker! (1992), Highland Fling (1994), Cinderella (1997) and The Car Man (2000). For these and other productions Bourne has added a lot of awards to his trophy room. These awards include Evening Standard Award, South Bank Show Award, Time Out Special Award, Drama Desk Award, six Los Angles Drama Critic Awards and the Astaire Award for Dance on Broadway.
In yet another interview to The Telegraph Born lifts the veil of secrecy and shares the secret of the success of his choreography pieces. In the interview to Lucy Cavendish, Bourne says: “I do think of the audience when I am choreographing a show. Some people have never been to the ballet before and I’m trying to make it as simple and as accessible as possible. I don’t mean dumbing down. I mean capturing the storyline and making the audience feel something” (Cavendish, 2010).
In 2015, Bourne is awarded with the The Stage Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre, which was presented by the UK Theatre Awards. The Sunday Times speaks of Bourne as “Matthew Bourne has inspired a generation to dance” and in 2016 Bourne is being knighted in the Queen’s New Year Honours 2016 for his services to dance. Matthew Bourne is a choreographer, who has seen an opening of the theatre, named in his honour Matthew Bourne Theatre while he was still alive. Besides the fact that Bourne himself is a surprisingly talented dancer and choreographer, he also tries to support other dancers. For that reason in 2008 Bourne established Re:Bourne, in order to increase the interest of young dancers to dance and create and in 2010 Bourne creates NACA, the New Adventurers Choreography Award to “enhance opportunities and showcase the talents of emerging choreographers” (New Adventurers).
Bourne is an interesting, versatile personality, whose life path is full of art, music and dance. His life, his talent is a shining example for many young dancers and his contribution to the development of the dancing is difficult to estimate. People of art never grow old in soul, they are always looking for something else, always trying to find something that other people do not see. And Matthew Bourne, who perfectly fits this description, continues his search of muse to surprise his fans with new choreography pieces.
References
Cavendish, L. (2010) Matthew Boune interview: 'It's wonderful that dance is so popular'. The
Telegraph. Web. 7 Apr, 2016. Retrived from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/8131428/Matthew-Boune-
interview-Its-wonderful-that-dance-is-so-popular.html
New Adventurers (n.d.) About Matthew Bourne. New-adventurers.net. Web. 7 Apr, 2016.
Retrieved from: http://new-adventures.net/matthew-bourne
Tims, A (2013) How we made Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. The Guardian. Web. 7 Apr,
2016. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/oct/14/how-we-made-matthew-bourne-swan-lake
Ward, R. (2013) Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, review: 'witty, menacing, lyrical and wild'.
The Telegraph. Web. 7 Apr, 2016. Retrieved from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10516276/Matthew-Bournes-Swan-Lake-review-witty-menacing-lyrical-and-wild.html
Whitney, Barbara (n.d.) Matthew Bourne. British choreographer and dancer. Encyclopedia
Britannica. Web. 7 Apr, 2016. Retrieved from:
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-Bourne
