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 Adventuresin Motion Pictures |
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We update these words generally once per year. Here is the view in September 1998. |
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Adventures in Motion Pictures (AMP) currently have the tag of the company "who redo the classics". It is true that their last three productions and their current one - Cinderella - are all reworkings of classical ballets, usually fiendishly witty versions, but the company is more than a pastiche. |
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The lead swan was danced by Adam
Cooper, a high-profile loan from the Royal Ballet. The production, which originally premiered at Sadler's Wells theatre, was revived in 1996 for a 21-week run at the Picadilly Theatre, the commercial longest run in London for a ballet. It subsequently toured to Los Angeles for a critically-acclaimed eight-week run, and will be on Broadway in the spring.
Bourne has stated in the past that one of his aims is to attract people to dance, and AMP have succeeded in that aim. The unconventional, drama-oriented productions succeed in pulling in a non-dance audience, who find themselves staying for the dance. |
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It
was founded in 1987 by Matthew Bourne after he graduated from the
Laban Centre in south London. Bourne was a late starter in dance - he took
his first class at 22, and founded his own company because he was convinced
his age made him unemployable as a dancer. One of his first productions
as a choreographer was Spitfire, the inspiration for which was mens'
underwear advertisements. The company expanded gradually from Spitfire,
which was a production for four dancers to The Nutcracker, which
used a full company of thirty-odd dancers. By this point, AMP productions
had become fairly high-profile - Bourne regularly choreographed for theatre
directors, and the company had done two pieces especially for television.
Highland Fling, first performed in 1994, was a reworking of
La Sylphide, set in working-class Glasgow, with a malevolent, mischevious
sylphe who bore no resemblance to Romantic ideas of the supernatural, and
every similarity to Celtic images of fairies. The plot was virtually identical
to Bouronville's original ballet, but the nuances were modern, hard and
emotionally-draining.
The following year Bourne staged his version of Swan Lake, very
similar in attitude to Highland Fling. The basic plot was very similar
to the original - lonely prince meets swan, prince falls for swan, prince
falls for swan-lookalike at a ball, swan and prince come to a sticky end.
The appearance of the production bore no resemblance at all to the original
Petipa/Ivanov production. The first tutu to appear in a Bourne ballet was
worn in a wicked pastiche of classical ballet, but the swans were male,
bare chested, and wore feathery breeches. 
Cooper has subsequently
left the Royal Ballet to dance full-time with AMP. The production won the
1996 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and Adam Cooper won the
1995 Time Out Dance award for his performance. Cooper wasn't the only Royal
Ballet dancer to join the production. Fiona Chadwick was persuaded
to come on board to create the part of the Queen, a part subsequently danced
by Lynn Seymour.
Matthew
Bourne's new production of Cinderella opened in September
at the Piccadilly theatre for a 16-week season. Once again, he has a high
profile lead, in addition to Cooper, Seymour, and AMP regulars Scott
Ambler, Maxine Fone, Saranne Curtin and Emily Piercy - this
time Sarah Wildor
a promising first soloist from the Royal Ballet. Reactions have been mixed - perhaps the most common conclusion has been that it works well as drama, but less well as dance. However, like all of Bourne's productions, it is well worth checking out.