Bourne, who is a five-time Olivier Award winner, is the only British director to have won Tony Awards for both Best Choreographer and Best Director of a Musical, which he won in 1999 for his dance production of Swan Lake, which famously featured an all-male corps de ballet playing the Swans.

Bourne danced professionally for 14 years and founded the award-winning Adventures in Motion Pictures in 1987. In 2002 Bourne launched New Adventures, one of the U.K.’s busiest and most successful dance companies, and a major exporter of British dance across the world. In recent years Bourne has also established Re:Bourne, a charity that inspires young people with a passion for dance, and the New Adventures Choreographer Award, which showcases emerging choreographic talent. In 2013 he was awarded the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards.

He has also been represented on Broadway by his co-direction and co-choreography of Mary Poppins. In the West End, he has also choreographed productions of Oliver!, Children of Eden and My Fair Lady.

In a press statement, Hugh Comerford, managing director at The Stage who is sponsoring the award, commented, “Matthew Bourne has been a leading light of the U.K. theatre and dance scene for the best part of 30 years. Through his work with Adventures in Motion Pictures and New Adventures he has created an unmatched repertoire and has helped to popularise contemporary dance and dance theatre in London, across the U.K. and around the world. He is a hugely deserving recipient of this award.”



For further details about the U.K. Theatre Awards, including a full list of nominations and the 12 regional and national winners of the My Theatre Matters! Most Welcoming Theatre Award 2015 in association with Smooth Radio, visit www.uktheatre.org/awards.