AMP s Swan Lake Returns for Six Weeks Only
Date: 3 September 1999
Adventures in Motion Pictures will return to London's West End with its hit production of Swan Lake for a limited six-week season next year, following a national tour. The modernised ballet opens at the Dominion Theatre on 7 February (previews from 2 February) and continues until 11 March 2000. The pre-London national tour kicks off 2 October 1999 at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield.
The acclaimed production comes to the UK direct from New York where it became the longest running ballet in Broadway history and, along the way, won three 1999 Tony Awards for Best Director of a Musical and Best Choreographer for Matthew Bourne and Best Costume Design for Lez Brotherston. The show was also heralded during its initial record-breaking season at the Piccadilly Theatre in London in 1996 where it won numerous awards, including the Olivier for Best New Dance Production, the Time Out Dance Award for Special Achievement, the South Bank Show Award and the Evening Standard Ballet Award.
By no means a conventional interpretation of the classic ballet, AMP's version borrows as much from contemporary stage musicals as from traditional dance. It features scenes in seedy nightclubs, characters named Pop Idol and Pimp and, most notoriously, men dancing the swan roles normally assigned to ballerinas.
The UK's only commercial dance company, AMP has made its name through putting a new spin on traditional dance forms. In addition to Swan Lake, its renowned productions include The Nutcracker, Cinderella and Highland Fling (based on La Sylphide).
After Sheffield, Swan Lake will visit Newcastle, Woking, Cardiff, Plymouth, Birmingham, Nottingham, Stoke, Norwich and Milton Keynes before arriving at the Dominion. This, so the company says, will be the last time this production of Swan Lake will be performed in London.
Swan Lake is directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne and designed by Lez Brotherston, with lighting by Rick Fisher. It is produced by Katharine Doré.
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