Matthew Bourne

Lilly Reeves, Jess Reeve, Constance Power

A bit About Matthew Bourne•He was born in Walthamstow, East London in 1960

•In 1982 he enrolled on the BA Dance Theatre degree at Laban Centre, studying in Ballet and Contemporary Dance

• During his final year in 1986 he danced with Laban’s Transitions Dance Company where he went on tour with them

•After graduation in 1987 he became artistic director for his first dance company ‘Adventures In Motion Pictures’

• In 2002 Bourne formed his latest company, ‘New Adventures’

•New Adventures became well known for their productions such as Play Without Words which premiered in 2002 and went on to win best entertainment and choreography at the Olivier awards that year.

•Other popular productions from New Adventures include Swan Lake, Nutcracker and The Car Man

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake•Matthew Bourne is known for his updated interpretations of traditional ballets

•Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake is a contemporary based ballet

• First staged at Sadlers Wells Theatre London 5th November 1995

•The Ballet is known for replacing its female swans with a male chorus

• Instead of pretty tutus and romance its masculine and menacing with its male ensemble

• Movements often used – inverted bent knees, relaxed wrists, hyper extended backs and chests, arms pushed back to act as wings

•Original Tchaikovsky music used

Swan Lake Storyline

An evil sorcerer (Rothbart) has turned a group of girls into

swans and their parent’s tears have formed a lake (this is Swan

Lake)

Swan Lake Storyline

A prince (who has just turned 21 and has to be married soon) finds the lake, learns

about the spell from the Swan Queen (Odette) and tries to break the spell (the

spell can only be broken if a man vows his undying love to her).

Swan Lake Storyline

The sorcerer tries to stop him and trick him. They battle. In the end the prince vows his

love to the Swan Queen (Odette) and he breaks the

curse.

Matthew Bourne’s Revival

Matthews rival has a similar storyline and goes along the same pathway as the original swan lake

does

Matthew Bourne’s Revival

However it has replaced the female corps de ballet (group

ensemble) with an all male cast.

Matthew Bourne’s Revivalcasting a male dancer as the role of Odette (Swan Queen) was decided because a male swan has a lot strength and an enormous

wingspan which suggests the muscular body of a male dancer more so than a ballerina in her

white tutu

Has The costuming changed?The costuming has changed significantlyTo start...

The cast is male

So tutus and pretty pointe shoes are not worn

Instead, feather knee length pants are worn with a black beak painted onto the forehead, the chest is bare to exaggerate the muscle definition and make them seem more bird like with they’re huge arms which are seen as wings.

Original Costuming...

Matthew’s Costuming...

The Dance Style

The dance style in Matthew’s Swan lake is very contemporary based with the extract of classical ballet.

He has included a lot of inverted knees and hyper extended backs and arms to show the long wings and

neck of a swan.

Where as in the original ballet, the swans movements included a lot of wafting of the arms up and down to show the wings flapping and the more graceful side.

The Cygnets Dance

The cygnets dance in swan lake (dance of the little swans) is danced by 4 dancers. The dance is shown in act 2 of the ballet just after the swan queens solo’s and is done to

show the maturity between baby swans and big swans. Matthew’s version of the cygnet dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_EOiXgVGhs

Original version of the cygnet dancehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3wPXmPvDoI

Dance History Presentation Referencing‘A bit about Matthew Bourne’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Bourne

‘Matthew Bournes Swan Lake’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Bourne

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake_(Bourne)

‘Matthew Bourne’s Revival’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake_(Bourne)