Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake is a contemporary ballet based on the Russian romantic work Swan Lake, from which it takes the music by Tchaikovsky and the broad outline of the plot. Having said that, one major thing aspiring choreographers can gain from this work is a broadening of horizons, an encouragement to open their eyes to everything around them for inspiration. I go to a lot of ballet; it’s what I first loved about dance, even before contemporary dance. In its staging, cinematic images and references to early 21st-century narratives merge For over 30 years he has been creating and directing dance for musicals, theatre, film as well as his own highly successful, award-winning companies. I love Mark Morris. James Elliot Bourne (born 13 September 1983 in Rochford, Essex, England) is an English singer-songwriter and musician.He is the Rhythm Guitarist, keyboardist and co-vocalist for the band Busted and the lead singer and the Rhythm guitarist for the band Son of Dork.He is also co-founder of Pop Punk bands Busted and Son of Dork as well as a solo electronic project, Future Boy. Lots of them message me all the time, I’m constantly giving advice – they’re asking me what kind of college they should go to. With Richard Winsor, Dominic North, Nina Goldman, Madelaine Brennan. Or Lea Anderson, who was in the year above me at college and was very influential on me about forming a company as well as the sort of work she was doing. The showcase performance was held at Sadler’s Wells on 7th September 2012 in front of a sold out audience. The kind of pitch you want for your shows – between popular and highbrow – makes me think of the 1930s and '40s British culture scene, when “high” culture outfits would tour and perform in music halls, and going to the ballet, for example, was mass entertainment. Someone described it as a passionate kiss and I thought, that’s not a passionate kiss, it’s just a peck on the cheek – father and son it looked like to me! Experiencing a Matthew Bourne ballet is like indulging in a whole box of Christmas crackers from Harrods – stuffed with surprises. This month he’s set to become even more widely known, as a film version of his show The Car Man is shown in dozens of UK cinemas. What other choreographers do you make a point of seeing? Not only does his company tour frequently and widely, with a Christmas run at Sadler’s Wells that many families regard as an essential fixture of their seasonal celebrations, his pieces have also been seen on Sky, on the BBC, and on film, most famously when his Swan Lake featured at the end of the 2000 movie Billy Elliot. I think we’re one of the few companies that does take graduates, especially when we do Swan Lake, which needs a larger company. Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Acutal swans cannot stand in arabesque or manage groupings as they do in either version. His early passions were movies: "I used to re-create whole films from memory," he says, laughing at his own youthful cheek, "and charge people to come and watch. Matthew Bourne’s “Sleeping Beauty” is the last of his trilogy of Tchaikovsky ballets, which took nearly two decades to complete. In the original production of Swan Lake, Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky wrote the music where a live orchestra performed it. Tom Clark (Carabosse) in Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty (© Johan Persson) This will be Bourne's 14th Christmas season in a row at Sadler's Wells. If there’s going to be a shot, there’s going to be blood. Matthew is genuinely a nice chap with a real sense of composure and a likeability factor that is reflected in his attitude to his dancers, he views them all as family. But it does indicate that Matthew was drawing from a larger collection of writings than we have today. Figure 3 Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake and Anna Pavlova 39 Figure 4 The Swan 40. They do a lot of shows, plus daily class, and lots of rehearsals for new casts coming in. We have a training aspect to the company as well - we’re big enough to acccommodate some new people alongside the old people and they all learn from each other. It is very dramatic and intense. That was our mission when we first did Car Man, actually: bringing a truth and a reality to dance. Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake is a contemporary ballet based on the Russian romantic work Swan Lake, from which it takes the music by Tchaikovsky and the broad outline of the plot. I might not have said that a few years ago, but yes, I think there is now. It’s incredibly dated, but it still really got me. Four of Matthew Bourne’s amazing ballets are now available to stream. It is a detailed meditation of Bourne’s particular interests and personal processes, a reflection on his own work rather than a dance maker’s manual. Here is a glimpse into his impressive list of accomplishments so you can see why we all love his choreography so much. It’s the favourite of the company to perform, actually, because it’s closer to them as people. “Let’s have a look,” he says and gets up to check. Any thing that’s a bit supernatural or otherwordly like Dream or The Tempest would be good. New Adventures works extremely hard, harder than any other company. It’s really nasty! Choreographers are not generally household names, but Matthew Bourne must come close. His brief solo, clad in a scarlet smoking jacket, pounds with emotion without sacrificing his razor sharp technique. Matthew Bourne's contemporary remake of The Nutcracker is returning to Sadler's Wells Theatre to celebrate its 20th anniversary. He has also worked on TV productions of his stage shows including Swan Lake which was a 1996 Emmy nomination and Sleeping Beauty that was broadcast on the BBC in Christmas 2013. Choreographers are not generally household names, but Matthew Bourne must come close. His daring male-swan reimagining wowed… And Zizi Strallen (pictured above left), who plays Lana in The Car Man, has a musical theatre background – and she’s just won Outstanding Female Performance at the National Dance Awards for Car Man, which is quite amazing, for someone with a musical theatre background to win that. It used not to be the case – [previously] ballet was the one you went to to lose your heart and get a bit dreamy. Valentine 5. As well as the works of his own company, Matthew has worked on many other projects. I saw her years ago when I was a kid and she’s an amazing stage actress. Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne OBE (born 13 January 1960) is an English choreographer. But he also seems to be making some implicit references as well. I have a different view on story pieces to some people: when I see a list of very complicated names and historical figures in a programme I feel as if I need to know too much ahead of it. Matthew Bourne's New Adventures company has, of course, produced some of the most successful dance theatre productions of recent times, including those other ballet classics Nutcracker! My background in entertainment started long before I knew anything about dance. We are always inspired by great dancers and choreographers with an independent spirit, to start your dance journey visit our website for a dance class in North Tyneside www.jadeharrisonschoolofdance.co.uk, HomeAbout Our TeamTimetables & PricesClassesOur ShopGalleryBlogContactPrivacy Policy, Tel: 0191 2570995 Mobile: 0777 5632024 Email: JadeHarrisDance@aol.com Copyright Jade Harrison School of Dance - All Rights Reserved Website Design by Digital Yak, Who is Matthew Bourne and Why We Love his Choreography. Special bond: Adam Cooper and Scott Ambler as Swan and Prince in Bourne's Swan Lake. Matthew Bourne: The difference an '!' Truly marvellous. Both of those genres are about giving, the whole style is about performing out all the time. There are too many Hamlets around – although, contradicting myself, I am absolutely thrilled that Glenda Jackson is going to be playing King Lear. In 2012, he was the winner of the inaugural New Adventures Choreographer Award, selected by Matthew Bourne for his ‘refreshing desire to entertain’. Does it say Sir Matthew Bourne now on the door of his office-cum-dressing room at Sadler’s Wells, I wonder? The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. They get very involved with it. When Matthew Bourne’s version first appeared, at the Sadler’s Wells stage in London in 1995, it turned this story on its head. Why do you think that is? That grounding in that sort of entertainment was very important to me. Since 1876, Tchaikovsky's iconic ballet "Swan Lake" has spread its wings to take on many forms, the unique of which was the 1995 production by Matthew Bourne. He has received multiple awards and award nominations, including the Laurence Olivier Award, Tony Award and Drama Desk Award, and he has also received several Honorary Doctorates of Arts from UK universities. Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne OBE is an English choreographer whose work includes contemporary dance and dance theatre. A dance critic wrote in one of the weeklies the other day that ballet has lost its direction with story, and all the choreographers who’re good at story are in contemporary now. As a teenager, he directed several amateur dance companies, despite never having had any dance lessons. Isotherm 10. Matthew Bourne talks about his war-torn take on the classic ballet. Read our interview with Matthew Bourne … These include choreography for classic musicals such as Cameron Mackintosh’s Oliver! It’s useful to have a living choreographer around to allow you to do that. Share . Matthew Bourne blends dance, humour and spectacle with extravagant, award-winning designs by Lez Brotherston, to create a provocative and powerful Swan Lake for our times. ★ ★ ★ ★ Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 26-30 November 2019. If we can get our space eventually, I think we’d like to set up our own youth company. Over the years I’ve learned to love all sorts of things: Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, I love Agnes de Mille. Obviously you weren’t around then, but were you inspired by that sort of entertainment culture? Have many of those boys gone into professional training? In his adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, on now at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Bourne completely reinvents the classic tale – as with most of his productions, he only preserves the skeleton of the original story. I’m happy that The Caretaker’s coming back and I saw The Homecoming – I’m a big Pinter fan. Your fondness for simple plots that everyone knows makes me think of George Lucas, who famously used Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) for inspiration when writing Star Wars. That’s what keeps feeding me now – I love to see straight plays more than anything else. Despite being bored with Shakespeare on stage, have you ever been tempted to do Shakespeare yourself? He has worked for over 30 years creating musicals, opera, films and theatre as well as running his own award-winning companies. Since then, Joaquin has been constantly working in the creation of new choreographies and musicals. I try to subvert the clichés: the lead figure male ends up being impotent, uninteresting, a drunk and a slob, not the man she thought she was with at the beginning, and she becomes the stronger figure – she’s the one who shoots him at the end. This objective of inspiring young people – and young men, in particular – is the top priority in the core values of Re:Bourne, the charitable arm of New Adventures, with which Matthew and his team are investing in the future of dance by supporting and nurturing the next generation of dancers, choreographers and audiences, through programmes such as Bourne To Dance and the New … I love anything Ashton. The quest to take something old and make it new keeps many a choreographer up at night. 1 INTRODUCTION In the twenty first century, over a hundred years after its conception, it is difficult to find a ballet company that has not performed Swan Lake. Matthew Bourne OBE, Adventures in Motion Pictures: Profession : Theatre Director, Choreographer, Dancer: Matthew Bourne OBE is an English choreographer. Yes, that might come. And is that important for the storytelling? The bigger the journey the better! Collecting over 30 international theatre awards including three Tonys, SWAN LAKE has been acclaimed as a landmark achievement on the international stage. I see my current company as very similar to what I’ve read about the history of the Royal Ballet in the war, touring and doing eight shows a week with the same dancers. His 2016 ballet "The Red Shoes" was set to be performed in Korea last year, but was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I used to see it a lot when I first started to enjoy dance at the Opera House; I saw lots of casts, have lots of memories. I always mention the ones that people know about, but actually there were people earlier, like Lindsay Kemp. No, I don’t think they were more realistic than the classical version. New Adventures now ranks as the most successful and busiest dance company in the country and has exported British dance around the globe. And the dancers are happy to do it. If you think about what happens in films, we’re quite far behind in dance sometimes with the stories we tell. and My Fair Lady as well as the National Theatre revival of South Pacific in 2002. MATTHEW BOURNE: When you go along to see one of those live ballet broadcasts there will be quite a lot of people there: there’s an audience for that. Following his dancing career, Joaquin decided to dedícate himself fully to choreography, and made his debut with the piece ¨Poeta¨ at the Miss Spain Gala in 1999. Since last year we have been engaging with the contemporary schools more, and we’re going in again doing mock auditions, rep, workshops, just to see if there’s a marriage there or if they’re turning out a different kind of performer. It’s the spiral of events, and the effect it has on other people, which I find interesting. It differs in choreography and Bourne’s version is performed by male dancers only. Would you say your performers have a house style, a New Adventures style? Sir Matthew Bourne, one of dance’s great storytellers, is focused on what he calls “The Big Idea” — the clever, crowd-pleasing modern makeover. First staged at Sadler's Wells theatre in London in 1995, … makes Ten years on, Matthew Bourne's 'Nutcracker' (now called 'Nutcracker!') Most of Bourne’s choreographic works are based heavily or entirely on well-known ballets, books, films, musicals, pieces of art or compositional scores; his most famous being Swan Lake and Nutcracker! It’s confirmed we’re going to do it in Australia next year, which is brilliant! I did the same with Strapless (pictured right): I just waited to see if the piece could tell me the story. Yes, I like the freedom. A modern interpretation of … The same with Angelo, who starts off as the weaker character and becomes the stronger. The charitable arm of the company, Re:Bourne, sponsors a £40,000 choreography award, and does impressive amounts of outreach work, including running dance workshops for thousands of boys and young men across the UK as part of the 2014 Lord of the Flies tour. He studied Dance Theatre and Choreography at The Laban Centre graduating in 1985 but spending a further year with the college’s performance company Transitions. I like to just watch things! It’s been an interesting year for that. There’s a lot of dance on TV that wasn’t there 15 or 20 years ago, and there are also highly successful movies without dialogue – like L’Illusioniste and The Artist. His take on the classic tale, with his company New Adventures is far more menacing and somber than the original. They have to do class and they have to finish class – if they don’t finish, you want to know why – and they have to get their 10-15 minutes before to do their own warm-up. I go to the theatre a lot. Matthew Bourne’s Early Adventures — a jolly show at Sadler’s Wells, London. Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday! in 1992 and another famous production in 1995, Swan Lake. Home » People » Matthew Bourne talks about re-staging his iconic Swan Lake Choreographer, Matthew Bourne talks to Quays Life about re-staging his ground-breaking Swan Lake for the 21st century and the royal scandal that inspired him to transform this Tchaikovsky classic with a … I enjoy watching things like that, partly because I think “Oh, I could never do that.” You admire things that aren’t your strong point, whereas it’s harder for me to watch a story piece. I loved theatre and movies and that’s what I knew of entertainment. As a story, I found it curious because there doesn’t seem to be an obvious motive force for what goes on it; the whole, violent spiral seems to kick off just for the slightest of reasons. It was great to see The Two Pigeons again lately – it brought back a lot of memories. Not only does his company tour frequently and widely, with a Christmas run at Sadler’s Wells that many families regard as an essential fixture of their seasonal celebrations, his pieces have also been seen on Sky, on the BBC, and on film, most famously when his Swan Lake featured at the end of the 2000 movie Billy Elliot. In 2014, he received the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement at the National Dance Awards while was on the Queen’s New Year Honours in 2016 for services to dance. I … The point she made, which I really appreciated, was that the choreographers she listed (of whom I was one) are people who are trying to bring the heart to stories, trying to make us feel something, and I think that’s interesting. Implicit Old Testament Allusions. I try to make them suffer. [laughs] Thank you! Not only does his company tour frequently and widely, with a Christmas run at Sadler’s Wells that many families regard as an essential fixture of their seasonal celebrations, his pieces have also been seen on Sky, on the BBC, and on film, most famously when his Swan Lake featured at the end of the 2000 … Matthew also works to support the wider dance industry and to help boost its future. Choreography / … No, and I don’t read programmes before I see things, I don’t even get them any more. As with many of the great ballets, there have been, and continue to be, different interpretations of The Nutcracker. The new company revived a number of successful productions as well as adding ground-breaking new ones including Play Without Words (2002), Edward Scissorhands (2005), Dorian Grey (2008) and Lord of the Flies (2011). 26 Later, the wheat sprouted and the heads of grain grew, but the weeds also grew. 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Around to allow you to do that ‘ you planted good seed in his final days what.
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