Matthew Bourne

Matthew Bourne is widely hailed as the UK’s most popular and successful choreographer and director.

Bourne has been creating and directing dance for musicals, opera, theatre, film as well as his own highly successful, award-winning companies for almost 30 years. He danced professionally for 14 years with many roles in his own work and has been recognised by over 40 international awards including the Laurence Olivier Award, Tony Award and Drama Desk Award. He was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to dance.

He started his dance training at the age of 22, studying Dance Theatre and Choreography at The Laban Centre (now Trinity Laban), before spending a further year with the college’s performance company Transitions.

With his first company, ‘Adventures in Motion Pictures’ (1987-2002), he created many award-winning works including Spitfire (1988), The Infernal Galop (1989), Town and Country (1991), Deadly Serious (1992), Nutcracker! (1992), Highland Fling (1994), Swan Lake (1995), Cinderella (1997) and The Car Man (2000).

New Adventures, launched in 2002, brought back iconic shows alongside new productions including Play Without Words (2002 – a co-production with the National Theatre), Edward Scissorhands (2005), Dorian Gray (2008), Lord Of The Flies (2011), Early Adventures (2012 – a compilation of his early work) and Sleeping Beauty (2012).

As well as his own work Matthew has worked on many other theatre, dance and television productions. In addition to being a prolific choreographer, he supports the wider dance industry and is Associate Artist and Resident Company at Sadler’s Wells. In 2008 he established Re:Bourne to increase opportunities to inspire young people with a passion for dance, and in 2010 he created the New Adventures Choreographer Award (NACA) to enhance opportunities and showcase the talents of emerging choreographers