Matthew Bourne
Choreographer

Matthew Bourne has been the Artistic Director and Choreographer of Adventures in Motion Pictures since 1987. AMP has become the UK's most innovative and popular dance/theatre company, winning countless awards for its ground breaking work, both at home and internationally. Matthew Bourne is the creator of the world's longest running ballet production and is the only British director to have won the Tony Award for Best Director and Best Choreographer of a Musical in the same year (1999).

He started dancing at the age of 22, when he enrolled at the Laban Centre. He was awarded a BA (Hons) degree in 1986 and spent a further year performing with the Laban Centre's Transitions Dance Company. As a dancer he was a founder member of Lea Anderson's Featherstonehaughs and created many roles with his own company. His final performance as a dancer came in January 1999, playing The Private Secretary in the Broadway production of Swan Lake.

Works created for AMP include Overlap Lovers, Spitfire, Buck and Wing, The Infernal Galop, Town and Country (Olivier nomination), Deadly Serious, The Percys of Fitzrovia, Nutcracker (Olivier nomination), Highland Fling, Swan Lake (numerous international awards including two Tonys, Drama Desk, Outer Critics' Circle, Astaire Award, Olivier Award, South Bank Show Award, Time Out Award, LA Critics' Circle, Dramalogue Award), Cinderella (LA Drama Critics' Circle and Backstage Garland Award), The Car Man (Evening Standard Award, Manchester Evening News Award, Olivier nomination). Film work includes Late Flowering Lust (BBC), Drip (AMP/BBC), Roald Dahl's Little Red Riding Hood (BBC), Swan Lake (AMP/BBC; Emmy nomination), The Car Man (AMP/C4).

He was the subject of a South Bank Show in 1997 and in 1999, he presented Channel 4's Dance 4 series. His production of Swan Lake is featured in Stephen Daldry's film, Billy Elliot. Other theatre work includes As You Like It (RSC/John Caird), Children of Eden (West End/John Caird), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Aix en Provence/Robert Carsen), The Tempest (NYT), Show Boat (Malmo Stadsteater, Sweden), Peer Gynt (Barbican/Yukio Ninagawa), Watch with Mother (NYDC), Boutique (Images of Dance), Watch Your Step (Irving Berlin Gala), Oliver! (London Palladium/Sam Mendes) and French and Saunders Live in 2000 (UK tour).

As well as creating roles for major dancers Lynn Seymour and Adam Cooper, he has made dances for many leading actors including Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Julie Walters, Dawn French and Jonathan Pryce (in Cameron Mackintosh's 1994 revival of Oliver!).

Faber & Faber have recently published Matthew Bourne and his Adventures in Motion Pictures. He is also one of the subjects of James Inverne's new book, Impresarios, published by Oberon. He is a director of The Spitfire Trust, which provides financial support to young dancers and choreographers, and in 1997 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Laban Centre. He was awarded an OBE for services to dance in this year's New Year's Honours List.

Future plans include a stage version of Edward Scissorhands, a new stage work for Walt Disney, a documentary series for Channel 4, a world tour of The Car Man and a series of productions for his own company for their new home at the Old Vic.

He receives messages at [email protected].