The English choreographer's trio of re-imagined Tchaikovsky ballet masterworks started in 1992 with The Nutcracker. And then in 1995, he produced the international hit Swan Lake.
Matthew Bourne's innovative production of Tchaikovsky's SWAN LAKE features an all male dancing troupe portraying swans and cygnets, and that the choreography emphasizes the aggressive movements in swans' repertoire instead of their more graceful motions.
From Nutcracker now to Sleeping Beauty, Mathew Bourne thinks Tchaikovsky inspires him throughout his artistic productions.
"I feel of a big connection with Tchaikovsky. I feel his music makes me want to dance and makes me want to tell a story. The thing really excites me about them, all three, is I feel they've become very well-known pieces and always performed in a same kind of way with same kind of images. If you start to change the images, you start to see and hear in a different way, so I think it would make people listen to the music again to rediscover the music."
Matthew Bourne's haunting new scenario for the ballet 'Sleeping Beauty' is a gothic fairy tale. This supernatural love story also introduces vampires and spans a century, from 1890 to the present.
This timeless fairy tale, about a little Princess Little Briar Rose cursed to sleep for 100 years, was first turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa in 1890.
Matthew Bourne used a puppet to portray the young princess in her baby version, as the producer himself explains:
"I thought because she's the main character. I wanted her to have a personality. And I wanted her to be a quite unruly child, so she cries a lot; she runs away, she does this sort of things. We have quite a lot of use of this puppet. And it gets the audience to know her a bit who she is before they meet the adult version of her."
Mathew Bourne is widely hailed as the world's most popular choreographer, who has won both the Laurence Oliver Award and the Tony Award, the highest excellence in theatre awards in the U.K. and the U.S. respectively.
He has also choreographed and directed musicals including My Fair Lady, Oliver Twist, and Mary Poppins. His "SLEEPING BEAUTY" will show in Tianqiao performing arts center In Beijing from September 1st to 4th.
For Studio Plus, I'm Wang Lei.
