David Dawson (choreographer)

Education and dance career

Born in London, David Dawson began to dance at the age of 7 and received his early training at Rona Hart School of Dance and the Arts Educational School. He graduated from the Royal Ballet School, where he was trained in dance and choreography.

In 1991 he received the Alicia Markova Award, won the Prix de Lausanne and was offered a contract by the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Under the direction of Sir Peter Wright he performed leading roles in all the classical repertoire as well as in ballets by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Peter Wright and David Bintley. He was nominated as Best Newcomer of the Season by 'Dance & Dancers' magazine in 1992.

In 1994, he joined the English National Ballet under the direction of Derek Deane as a soloist. A year later moved to Amsterdam to perform with Wayne Eagling's Dutch National Ballet. Here Dawson was able to continue dancing in classical productions as well as explore more neo-classical and modern repertoire in the works of George Balanchine, Rudi van Dantzig and Hans van Manen. Dawson worked with choreographers and created roles in new ballets by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Bruce, Wayne Eagling, Ted Brandsen, Mauro Bigonzetti, Itzik Gallili, Redha, Christopher D'Amboise.

Subsequently, he joined Ballett Frankfurt, where he worked with William Forsythe and performed for two more years before deciding to devote his time to creating his own new works. Dawson ended his dance career in 2002.

Choreographic career

Dawson choreographed his first ballet in 1997, while with the Dutch National Ballet. Its then artistic director Wayne Eagling encouraged him to create for the company’s choreographic workshop. This experience resulted in Dawson's first major creation for the main company, A Million Kisses to my Skin, in 2000.

He received the Prix Benois de la Danse in 2003 for choreography and nominated for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award as Best Classical Choreographer for The Grey Area. His process of choreographing this ballet was vividly illustrated in Tim Couchman's film 'The Grey Area' in Creation. Dawson created Reverence for the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet for which he was awarded Russia's highest theatre prize for visual art, the Golden Mask Award, as Best Choreographer. By doing so he became the first British choreographer to create a ballet for this company. He received the Choo San Goh Award for Choreography for The Gentle Chapters and was nominated for the highest dance prize of the Netherlands, The Golden Swan Award, as Best Choreographer for 00:00. For his re-imagining of Faun(e), created for the English National Ballet's Ballets Russes Festival at the Sadler’s Wells in London, Dawson was nominated Best Classical Choreographer for the UK Critics' Circle National Dance Award and the Prix Benois de la Danse Choreography Award in 2010. David Dawson and his Faun(e) were featured in the BBC documentary For Art's Sake: The Story of the Ballets Russes.

Dawson has created numerous ballets internationally, including his full-length Giselle, which had its world premiere at the Semperoper. Amongst other significant works are day4, On the Nature of Daylight, The World According to Us, Morning Ground, Das Verschwundene|The Disappeared, A Sweet Spell of Oblivion, dancingmadlybackwards, and timelapse/(Mnemosyne) and The Third Light.

Between 2004 and 2012 David Dawson was resident choreographer for the Dutch National Ballet, the Dresden Semperoper Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. His creations have been introduced to the repertoires of the Boston Ballet, Ballet National de Marseilles, Het (Dutch) Nationale Ballet, Dresden SemperOper Ballett, English National Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, West Australian Ballet, Aalto Ballet Theatre Essen, Slovenian National Ballet, Ballet du Capitole, Vienna State Opera Ballet. Dawson's works have been performed in more than 25 countries and have entered repertoires of many ballet companies.

Choreographic style

Dawson's work is based in the vocabulary of classical ballet and, though Dawson disagrees with the association, is often said to be influenced by William Forsythe. Dawson's website claims that his "personal choreographic style transforms classical ballet in new ways, and his signature works are atmospheric, emotionally physical, abstract/narrative pieces that have been praised by critics and audiences worldwide." He is quoted as saying that he is inspired by "everything that has ever existed and everything that exists now."

Creations

Honours