MATTHEW BOURNE

A lot of the people who have come to know the company in the last few years will not have seen this piece.

I wish I was more adventurous.

I saw the Nutcracker to be a dummy as I thought of its mouth moving like a nutcracker - and also find them pretty scary as they almost have a life of their own.

I'm very conscious that I want the dance audience to respond and respect what I'm doing, so I'm always very true to the music and I honour the music in the way I see it - I don't mess around with the music.

I've always been excited by the strangeness of ballet, but I can't bear it when people just come forward and do a turn in the air for no reason.

People strangely revere dance. They see it as another world, and dancers are somehow mysterious - just because they don't speak.

The reason I'm travelling so much is because of reasons that weren't completely planned. Several of the shows became successful and were invited to go to other places and they've all happened at similar times.

It's one of my strongest dance pieces - having just done Play Without Words which was veering away from a lot of dance - I thought it would be nice to go back to something with almost the most dance I'd done.

When it comes down to it, it's giving people a good night out in a basic way and I think my company guarantees that. There's always something new and something to excite us and surprise us, and that's why people come back, I hope.

People know that they're going to see something which is entertaining but challenging as well because of the form it's in. It's dance theatre and it requires you to use your imagination - it's not straight forward.

With any project there's one or two things that you really want to do and that's going to crack it.

Sometimes you don't know what you've got until you put it in front of an audience - and the enthusiasm for the show from the audience has been just incredible.

It's one of the things that looks good written down, but the reality is that you think about the pieces you're doing and try to bear in mind everyone in the audience.

I once went through the dustbin outside David Bowie's house.

I would like to have directed Hollywood musicals in the '40s and '50s.

Astaire never thought of what he was doing as balletic, but Kelly was always trying to dance with women on points. And his choreography is so showy and flashy. He always looks self-satisfied to me.

My company is known for being funny as well as moving. You get a bit of everything in these shows. I think people know they're going to have a surprising experience.

The reason I think the shows I do are successful with a wider public is because they tap into something that's beyond dance and is about being told a story. That's what people want.

I'm a believer in presenting something that is worth paying to see. I've always felt lucky in that the work that pleases me pleases other people as well.

I was always the kid down the street who got the other kids to put on a show. But it was only when I was 19, and discovered ballet and contemporary dance, that I got interested in the fact that you could have a whole evening of dance - rather than just waiting for the dancers in a musical.

I'm a choreographer and a director, and I have no ambition beyond that.

My parents were an ordinary East End family and very supportive - they would have supported me no matter what I wanted to do.

I'm very interested in storytelling and anything that plays with structure.

I had daydreamed through many performances of Swan Lake, thinking the dancing tutus only ever conveyed one aspect of swans: their beauty gliding on water. I wondered what it would be like to use male dancers and bring out swans' aggressive, muscular side.

I've mostly had a trouble-free life.