curtain calls, saying "I pride myself on my company’s curtain calls, I really do. I think you won’t see a nicer curtain call than from my lot." New Adventures The company, formerly known as 'Adventures in Motion Pictures' (see New Adventures (dance company)) was first established in 1987 by a group of Laban graduates. After the success of Swan Lake, AMP (Adventures in Motion Pictures) was heading down a highly commercial route. Long-running international tours of Swan Lake meant the company felt headed for world domination, which made Bourne uneasy, "I felt that I was running an office rather than a company". The pressure to create highly profitable productions left Bourne feeling creatively stifled. Feeling the need to be closer to his productions and seeking room to experiment and work with a smaller team, Bourne and AMP's co-director Katherine Doré eventually made the decision to split. In 2000, he started a new company, New Adventures, which was officially formed with Managing Director Robert Noble OBE (also Deputy Managing Director of Cameron Mackintosh) and Bourne's long time collaborator, and former dancer, Etta Murfitt MBE as Associate Artistic Director. This enabled Bourne and the company to scale down and create low budget shows, working in close collaboration with the dancers and artists who contribute hugely to his creative process. Esteemed dance critic Judith Mackrell notes, 'there were moments in his career when Bourne could easily have let himself become a commercial commodity and squandered his talent (The Guardian).' Personal life Matthew started his dance training at the comparatively late age of 22 and trained at Trinity Laban in London and before that he describes himself as self-taught. He explains to The Guardian “my first ever dance class was my audition for dance college when I was 21”. In the same interview, he paints a picture of his younger self as a keen autograph hunter, frequently taking the bus to the West End to meet the stars of the stage, and later being starstruck when making Barbara Streisand's Christmas List. Bourne is now in a long-term relationship with contemporary dance choreographer Arthur Pita, who has been penned as the 'David Lynch of dance' (Guardian) who says of their relationship, "we talk about work a lot, but it's never competitive, our styles are so different". The two met through Bourne's production of Swan Lake, when Bourne was director and Arthur was a swan. In