Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty - A Gothic Romance will be held at Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center from Sep.1 to Sep.4, 2016.
Perrault’s timeless fairy tale, about a young girl cursed to sleep for one hundred years, was turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer, Marius Petipa, in 1890. Bourne takes this date 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. As Aurora grows into a young woman, we move forwards in time to the more rigid, uptight Edwardian era; a mythical golden age of long Summer afternoons, croquet on the lawn and new dance crazes. Years later, awakening from her century long slumber, Aurora finds herself in the modern day; a world more mysterious than any Fairy story!
Matthew Bourne is widely hailed as the UK’s most popular and successful Choreographer and Director. 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.
He is Artistic Director of New Adventures which is now Britain’s most popular dance theatre touring company regularly performing some of the biggest dance hits ever seen in the UK (Nutcracker! ,Swan Lake, The Car Man, Cinderella, Edward Scissor hands and Dorian Gray). In 2012 New Adventures celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a year-long program of work culminating in the world premiere of his latest production of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty.
Bourne has also created choreography for classic musical revivals including Cameron Mackintosh's Oliver! (1994 and 2008), My Fair Lady (Oliver Award) and South Pacific (Trevor Nunn). In 2004, he co-directed and choreographed the West End and Broadway hit musical Mary Poppins (Oliver Award, Tony nomination). He has twice been nominated Best Director at the Oliver Awards and his choreography has been recognized with over 50 international awards and six honorary doctorates. In the 2001 New Year's Honors, he was awarded an OBE for services to dance. In 2016, he was dubbed knight, becoming the first modern dance artist receiving this honor.
Source: damai.cn
