Bourne to be a dancer

Matthew Bourne's dancing career didn't start at the Royal Ballet school, but in his parent's back garden.

"From the age of five I had a great love for dance," he says. I loved musicals, especially anything that involved Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and all the MGM movies.

"I was always putting on shows in my back garden and I was the one who encouraged all the other children in the street to join me. I didn't know anything about modern dance until later on and my first audition at the age of 22 was also my first lesson." Bourne, 47, is now an internationally-renowned Laurence Olivier and Tony Award-winning choreographer with his own company New Adventures.

He is responsible for popular productions such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Highland Fling, The Car Man, Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands and Mary Poppins. The Car Man, inspired by the famous Bizet's opera Carmen, will be playing at Birmingham Hippodrome from November 13 to 17.

"I wasn't particularly interested in the story of Carmen," says Matthew. "I didn't even know it that well and I still don't know it that well, to be honest. I know there are parallels, but it was more the feeling of the music and of what we all know Carmen to be. The shows we are doing in Birmingham show people that dancing is not about tights and frilly shirts and the Car Man will appeal to young men in the audience."

Matthew was the subject of a South Bank Show in 1997 and was awarded an OBE for services to dance in 2003. However, he came to dance and choreography late, auditioning at the Laban centre at the age of 22. "I was from a working-class, East End background so I'm a bit odd because I didn't come through the Royal Ballet," he says. "I think it has been my biggest good fortune, to come into it late, because a lot of my influences are outside of dance such as movies and TV, the things I loved when I was growing up."

The Nutcracker will be at the Birmingham Hippodrome from March 25 to 26 and Mary Poppins is showing in July.

Tickets for The Car Man are available at www.birminghamhippodrome.com or by calling 0870 730 1234. A Post Show Talk with Matthew Bourne will be held on November 13 after the first performance of The Car Man.

By Cathy Spencer.