Matthew Bourne

Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne (born 13 January 1960) is a British choreographer renowned for radical reinterpretations of classic ballets. His productions are infused with references to classic cinema, popular culture, and musicals, often adapting well-known novels and films into distinctive dance works that are entirely their own. Bourne’s 1995 restaging of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which famously replaced the traditional female corps de ballet with all-male swans, brought him international acclaim and reshaped modern dance theatre. Born in Hackney, London, to a secretary mother and a father who worked for Thames Water, Bourne had no formal ballet training as a child.

His passion for show business emerged after his mother took him to see Dame Edith Evans and Friends in 1974; he subsequently wrote to and received replies from stars like Joan Crawford and Charlie Chaplin. He attended his first ballet, Swan Lake, at Sadler’s Wells at age eighteen. After working as a filing clerk at the BBC and an usher at the National Theatre, he started studying at London's Laban Centre at 20 and began dance classes at 22, earning a BA in contemporary dance (1985) and an MA in dance performance (1986).

Style and process

He co-founded Adventures in Motion Pictures in 1987. His 1992 Nutcracker! set the Christmas Eve scene in a Victorian orphanage, while his 1994 Highland Fling relocated La Sylphide to a modern Glasgow housing project. Bourne’s work prioritises clarity of storytelling, characterisation, and cinematic staging, often initiating a dialogue between his adaptation and the original work.

Career

His New Adventures company blends ballet, contemporary dance, and musical theatre. Notable adaptations include Sleeping Beauty, Edward Scissorhands, The Red Shoes, Dorian Gray, and Lord of the Flies. His The Midnight Bell sets Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 novel in a pub, and his Romeo and Juliet foregrounds mental health and youth suicide. Bourne was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to dance.