Sir Matthew Bourne
Matthew Bourne is widely hailed as one of the UK’s most popular and successful Choreographers / Directors. 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 a Tony Award for both Best Choreographer and Best Director of a Musical.
He started training to be a dancer at the comparatively late age of 22. He studied Dance Theatre and Choreography at The Laban Centre, graduating in 1985. 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 was the Artistic Director of his first company, Adventures in Motion Pictures, from 1987 until 2002. During those 15 years, AMP became one of the UK’s most innovative and popular dance/theatre companies. In 2002, he launched his latest company, New Adventures, an iconic and ground-breaking British dance-theatre company, famous for telling stories with a unique theatrical twist. and which has won numerous awards.
Matthew has created choreography for several major revivals of classic musicals - Oliver!, Mary Poppins, South Pacific and My Fair Lady - as well as working extensively in film and television. Screen adaptations of his stage work include Swan Lake (Emmy nomination), The Car Man and Nutcracker!
Matthew Bourne has been nominated twice as Best Director at the Olivier Awards and his achievements in choreography have been recognised with over 30 international awards. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award – one of the most coveted honours in the world of dance – in recognition of his outstanding services to the art of ballet, and was the recipient of the prestigious Hamburg Shakespeare Prize for the Arts.
He was awarded an OBE for Services to Dance in 2001 and received a Knighthood in 2016.
Photo: © Hugo Glendinning