He is the creator of the world's longest running ballet production, a five - time Olivier Award winner, and the only British director to have won the Tony Award for both Best Choreographer and Best Director of a Musical.

Matthew started training to be a dancer at the comparatively late age of 22. He studied Dance Theatre and Choreography at The Laban Centre graduating in 1985 but spending a further year with the college's performance company Transitions. Matthew danced professionally for 14 years creating many roles in his own work. In 1999 he gave his final performance playing The Private Secretary in the Broadway production of Swan Lake.

Matthew Bourne was the Artistic Director of his first company, Adventures in Motion Pictures, from 1987 until 2002. During those 15 years AMP became the UK's most innovative and popular dance/theatre company creating an enormous new audience for dance with it's groundbreaking work both at home and Internationally (Works include: - Highland Fling, Spitfire, Swan Lake, Cinderella and The Car Man).

In 2002 Matthew launched his latest company, New Adventures, with two highly successful productions. Play Without Words premiered as part of the National Theatre's Transformation Season and went on to win Best Entertainment at that year's Olivier Awards. It then embarked on a World Tour and premiered in New York, Los Angeles and Moscow in 2005. Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! also premiered at Sadler's Wells in 2002 and became an instant popular hit with audiences and critics, returning the following year for a second sell-out season. It became the first ballet to be screened by BBC1 in over 20 years and then also embarked on a world tour. Last year saw New Adventures acclaimed revival of one of Bourne's most popular works, the

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