Bourne to Dance New Adventures podcast

Bourne to Dance launches on Thursday 29 April, International Dance Day, and is available from Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music

Even accidental dance viewers know the name Sir Matthew Bourne, the choreographer whose every new work of dance theatre is enthusiastically received well beyond the confines of traditional dance audiences, as well as garnering a growing number of awards.

Bourne is, of course, the man who turned Petipa's diaphanous swans into a posse of feral male swans in his own adaptation of that best loved of classical ballets, Swan Lake, which was also a ferocious satire on a dysfunctional royal family. He tackled Nutcracker, Edward Scissorhands, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, to mention but a few, each time providing a visceral, subversive take on the original.

His The Car Man, which transposes Bizet's feisty heroine to the murky waters of Hollywood's 1940s and 50s film noir, comes to the Royal Albert Hall in 2022, in a new larger-than-life production designed for the RAH's vast space.

Now, Bourne is going one step further and offering insights into the world of dance from a variety of perspectives with his new weekly podcast Bourne to Dance, billed as exploring and questioning 'why dance moves, inspires and excites us.'

Paul Smethurst, resident artist with Bourne's New Adventures company, hosts the podcast, and each week he interviews one guest with a passion for dance, from the world of New Adventures and beyond. Fittingly, the guest on Week One is Sir Matthew Bourne himself.

Coming guests include Ashley Shaw, seasoned principal dancer with New Adventures, who among many other lead roles originated the lead of Vicky Page in the world premiere of The Red Shoes, and Layton Williams, most recently a fabulous lead in the West End's production of Everybody's Talking About Jamie.

Lighting designer Paule Constable, the Olivier and Tony Award winning lighting designer, who is an associate artist of New Adventures, will also figure, as will arts, culture and entertainment TV presenter Brenda Emmanus, and Kane Husbands, artistic director of The PappyShow theatre company.