page_title: Edward Scissorhands (dance)
section_title: Composition and development
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Scissorhands (dance) / Composition and development
caption_attribution_description: en:Matthew Bourne, choreographer for the stage adaptation of Edward Scissorhands, backstage in Melbourne 2006-11-28.
context_page_description: Edward Scissorhands is a contemporary dance adaptation of the 1990 American romance fantasy film Edward Scissorhands, created by Matthew Bourne, with music by Terry Davies. The screenwriter and composer of the film version, Caroline Thompson and Danny Elfman, helped to develop the dance version, which is set in the 1950s. The story is told entirely through music and dance with no discourse although the plot is similar to the movie.
  The piece debuted in London in 2005 and, despite mixed reviews, has subsequently toured in Britain, Asia, the U.S., Australia and Europe. The productions have been put on by Bourne's New Adventures dance company.
context_section_description: Bourne's all-male 1995 version of Swan Lake has become the longest-running ballet production and earned him the distinction as the only British director to become a winner of both the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Choreography at the 53rd Tony Awards in 1999.  In 2002, 2003 and 2005, he earned the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for My Fair Lady, Play Without Words and Mary Poppins, respectively. Eventually (in 2008), Time would begin an article on Bourne with the following summary: "Matthew Bourne is the world's most popular living dance maker."
  Bourne was asked by composer friends to brainstorm about films that could be adapted into stage productions in his dance style. Thompson met Bourne in 1997 through Alan Cumming after already having seen Swan Lake.  Bourne asked Thompson's consent to adapt the Scissorhands film the following year, but it took another seven years to obtain the necessary funding and get the film's director Tim Burton and composer Elfman to go along.  The work, which Bourne choreographed, was developed as dance theatre instead of as a traditional musical and has no singing or speaking.   The musical score is by Terry Davies, but it includes significant portions of Elfman's film score.
  Thompson claims Scissorhands is based on a pet dog of hers.  She described her dog as follows: "he was the most soulful, yearning creature I ever met. She wanted to participate in everything. She didn’t need language to communicate. She communicated with her eyes." She described the character as similar to Frankenstein's monster and Pinocchio in the sense that he is "an outsider who wants to be an insider".
caption: Matthew Bourne, the creator of the dance adaptation of Edward  Scissorhands, during the Australian tour in 2008
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