Matthew Bourne Archives

Olivier Award 2013 nominations announced: dance and opera

Mar 262013

Olivier Award Image 500x281 Olivier Award 2013 nominations announced: dance and opera While it’s great to see 87-year-old working choreographer Gillian Lynne get a special award, there is Marianela Núñez in the running for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, a nomination richly deserved by the Royal Ballet’s most radiant and thrilling ballerina. Another welcome name for dance is designer Lez Brotherston who has collaborated with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures from the beginning, and has constantly astonished audiences with his sets and costumes.

Though the Royal Ballet and the English National Opera have done well, the Royal Opera has left a black hole in the nomination lists for its new productions; oh dear. Applause, however, for Edward Gardner’s conducting and Bryan Hymel’s singing, both at the Royal Opera, so the musical side of things seems to be secure.

Best New Dance Production
Aeternum by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon
Cacti by Nederlands Dans Theatre 2 at Sadler’s Wells, choreographed by Alexander Ekman
A Streetcar Named Desire by Scottish Ballet at Sadler’s Wells

Outstanding Achievement in Dance
Lez Brotherston for the set and costumes for Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, New Adventures at Sadler’s Wells
ILL-Abilities company in Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells
Marianela Nunez for Aeternum, Diana & Actaeon and Viscera, The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House

Best Theatre Choreographer
Scott Ambler – Chariots Of Fire
Bill Deamer – Top Hat
Scott Graham & Steven Hoggett – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
Stephen Mear – Kiss Me, Kate

Best New Opera Production
Billy Budd, English National Opera at the London Coliseum
Caligula, English National Opera at the London Coliseum
Einstein On The Beach at the Barbican theatre
La Traviata, English National Opera at the London Coliseum

Outstanding Achievement in Opera
Edward Gardner for his conducting of The Flying Dutchman and Billy Budd at the English National Opera, London Coliseum
Bryan Hymel for his performances in Les Troyens, Robert Le Diable and Rusalka at the Royal Opera House
Music Theatre Wales for In the Locked Room/Ghost Patrol at the Linbury Theatre, the Royal Opera House
The Stage Management teams at English National Opera, London Coliseum and the Royal Opera House

Special Award
Gillian Lynne

The Times’ Debra Craine on Matthew Bourne: “I was bowled over by his ability to turn levity into something altogether darker and more moving”

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Dec 072011

“I will always be grateful to Bourne, because more than 20 years ago his dances made me laugh. Right from the start it was clear that he was going to bring an enormous amount of fun to the job of choreographer. His engaging irreverence was like nothing else in contemporary dance at the time.

“And when Swan Lake came along in 1995, with its menacing birds and tortured gay love story, I was bowled over by his ability to turn levity into something altogether darker and more moving.”

via The Times… [continue reading]

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty — from Petipa to iPads

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Oct 262011

Matthew Bourne is to create a new version of ballet Sleeping Beauty with “vampiric influences”.

The work will be premiered at Christmas as part of a season at Sadler’s Wells marking 25 years of Bourne’s company, New Adventures. Earlier works, including Nutcracker and Play Without Words, will also be showcased at the London venue in 2012.

Perrault’s timeless fairy tale, about a young girl cursed to sleep for one hundred years, was turned into a legendary ballet by choreographer, Marius Petipa, in 1890. Bourne takes this as his starting point, setting the Christening of Aurora, the story’s heroine, in the year of the ballet’s first performance; the height of the Fin-de-Siecle period when fairies, vampires and decadent opulence fed the gothic imagination.… [continue reading]

Christopher Wheeldon explains why his Alice ballet isn’t a slow-motion car crash

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Oct 152011

Luke Jennings, summing up the critics’ verdicts on the ‘McCartney Ballet’ in the Guardian’s theatre blog, reflected on unsuccessful narrative ballets:

Ballet’s gatekeepers tend to almost infinite credulity, and this, to a large extent, is why there are so many bad narrative ballets. Here in the UK there are dance directors who understand the nature and importance of story – Matthew Bourne, ZooNation’s Kate Prince, the Royal Ballet’s Will Tuckett – but many more who don’t. And so we get slow-motion car crashes like last year’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, created for the Royal Ballet by Christopher Wheeldon, and Ocean’s Kingdom.

A slow-motion car crash… wow! I loved Alice, though I haven’t seen it in the theatre. The Arts Desk’s David Nice has only seen it via the newly released DVD and guess what — he loved it too.… [continue reading]

English Lads Can Dance! says Italy’s L’Uomo Vogue

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Oct 142011

Swan Lake Bourne Bruce Weber English Lads Can Dance! says Italys LUomo Vogue Bruce Weber phởtographed the dancers of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake for the January 2011 issue of L’Uomo Vogue.

‘English Lads Can Dance!’ was styled by Deborah Watson, and the dancers are Richard Winsor, Chris Trenfield, Tim Bartlett, Tom Clark, Dominic North, and Franklyn Lee.

… [continue reading]

The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs to disband following ACE cuts

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Aug 102011

The all-female dance troupe The Cholmondeleys and its male counterpart The Featherstonehaughs are to disband after losing their funding. The two companies, pronounced Chumleys and Fanshaws, will come to an end in December following a 100% funding cut from Arts Council England (ACE).

Choreographer Lea Anderson formed The Cholmondeleys in 1984, with the all-male group created four years later. The two groups have spent much of the last 10 years performing works together, most recently with the piece Dancing on Your Grave in 2009.

However The Featherstonehaughs embarked on its first solo tour in a decade last year, with a piece called Edits. It will tour this again in October and November, following which both companies will be wound up. The Cholmondeleys will not have a farewell tour.… [continue reading]

Matthew Bourne: “a lot of young people think that it’s odd to have women as swans”

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Jun 252011

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake will be shown on television 3-D. Ahead of its showing The Times talked to the choreographer. Here are some of the questions he was asked:

Where would you be without Swan Lake?
It’s the thing that opened up everything else to me. The irony is that this is the only version that a lot of young people have seen and they think that it’s odd to have women as swans.

Did Black Swan give dancers a bad rep?
In ways I don’t think it was stereotypical enough! Because it was all very heterosexual, the gay aspect of dance seemed to be completely not there at all. Dance is more popular than it’s been for many years, and Black Swan has a lot to do with that.… [continue reading]

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Olivier Award 2013 nominations announced: dance and opera

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The Times’ Debra Craine on Matthew Bourne: “I was bowled over by his ability to turn levity into something altogether darker and more moving”

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Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty — from Petipa to iPads

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Christopher Wheeldon explains why his Alice ballet isn’t a slow-motion car crash

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English Lads Can Dance! says Italy’s L’Uomo Vogue

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The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs to disband following ACE cuts

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Matthew Bourne: “a lot of young people think that it’s odd to have women as swans”

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