Interview: Matthew Bourne

Fifteen years ago, Matthew Bourne had an idea. He would take Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, Swan Lake, and turn it on its head. Gone were the delicate tutus and ballerinas, and in their place came an all-male troupe.

To say the production – which returns to Yorkshire this month – ruffled feathers among dance traditionalists, is an understatement.

Bourne came under criticism from the establishment and some audience members felt so aggrieved they walked out. The production was also a triumph and proved that popularity and critical acclaim aren't necessarily mutually exclusive in the revered world of ballet.

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"Swan Lake changed my life," says Bourne, whose company, Adventures in Motion Pictures, has since established a reputation for left-field productions, not least taking Bizet's Carmen, renaming it The Car Man and setting it in a greasy diner.

"It took us to different places, it took us all over the world, it took us to the West End, to Broadway and all around the country. Without Swan Lake, I wouldn't still be here, doing what I'm doing."

The production also inspired a new generation of male dancers, who, like Bourne, found themselves wanting a middle ground between the often abstract nature of contemporary dance and the classical storytelling of ballet.

"There are a lot of young people who saw the show when they were at school and it then inspired them to go on to dance. Swan Lake was their original inspiration," says Bourne.

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"One of the things I most enjoy about the work I do now is the inspiration it gives to young people. The new swans who have come in, are 17, 18 or 19. They were toddlers when we first did it, so they've grown up with it."

The production was not just controversial for its lack of ballerinas. His references to the Royal Family, in particular Charles and Camilla, made some shift uncomfortably in their seats.

"For a while, I'd been thinking, 'what if Swan Lake's Royal Family slightly resembled a modern family we would recognise in more modern times?'," he says. "By the time I made it, in 1995, the newspapers were full of Royal scandal. So a troubled prince didn't seem so far away from the truth.

"I remember walking though St James Park one day and saw the swans there with Buckingham Palace in the background and there was the piece. It was all there."

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Today, the production plays to packed houses and demand for tickets is always high, but he admits that in the weeks leading up to opening night, the entire company was keeping its fingers crossed and with good reason.

"We had a lot of trouble raising money for it," he says. "But you have to have a bullish feeling for something you think will work even though the people around you think it's a stupid idea. When we were making the piece, all of us in the rehearsal room quietly believed in it."

Confirmation Bourne had been right came the morning after the night before, when his ballet suddenly found itself the subject of mainstream news bulletins. It was the kind of publicity every choreographer would die for.

"The day after it opened, I was on the news, not an arts programme, actually on the news. Sitting on the news desk of CNN, being interviewed on the news, and that doesn't happen in the arts very often."

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"Very quickly after that, Cameron Mackintosh said, 'You must do this in the West End'. It never would have occurred to me to do that; I never would have thought it was possible to put a ballet like that in the West End. All these things were very big learning curves, trail-blazing really."

It's three years since the company last toured with Swan Lake, but you get the impression Bourne will never tire of the show.

"I'm very aware it's still something that people love and there's a whole new audience out there who have only seen it on DVD, so I'm really happy it's going out and touring again.

"I feel I have got the opportunity to make it better than ever.

A SEASON OF DANCE AT BRADFORD

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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: The company began life in New York in 1958 and since then has built a reputation for celebrating African-American culture. Now under the artistic direction of Judith Jamison, the company has brought dance to mainstream audiences. October 15 and 16.

Havana Rakatan: Originally the brainchild of Cuban choreographer Nilda Guerra, the show is a journey through the country's long history of music and dance, with mambo, bolero, cha-cha-cha, rumba and salsa all brought to live on stage. October 25 to 27.

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