David Dawson (choreographer)
Encyclopedia
British choreographer and dancer, David Dawson (born 4 March 1972 in London
, England
) is one of the most respected names amongst the younger generation of choreographers working in the classical ballet idiom today.
where he was trained in dance and choreography. In 1991 he received the Alicia Markova
Award, won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne
and the same year he was offered a contract by the Birmingham Royal Ballet
. Under the direction of Sir Peter Wright he was soon performing 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.
He joined the English National Ballet
under the direction of Derek Deane
in 1994 as a Soloist, and 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 exploring more neo-classical and modern repertoire in particular the works of George Balanchine
, Rudi van Dantzig
and Hans van Manen
. 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 danced all over the world, worked with choreographers and created roles in new ballets including works 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.
Between 2004 and 2009 Dawson was Resident Choreographer for the Dutch National Ballet and the Dresden Semperoper Ballet. Since September 1, 2010, David Dawson has been appointed Choreographer in Residence at the Royal Ballet of Flanders. His works have entered the repertoires of many leading ballet companies and have also been performed in more than 20 countries to much acclaim from both international critics and the public. He was honoured with the Prix Benois de la Danse
for choreography and nominated for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award as Best Classical Choreographer for The Grey Area. The process of choreographing this ballet was vividly illustrated in Tim Couchman's film The Grey Area in Creation.
Dawson has created numerous ballets internationally, including his full-length Giselle, which had its world premiere at the Semperoper
. He 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, and became the first British choreographer to create a ballet for this legendary company. Amongst other significant works are 00:00, Morning Ground, The Gentle Chapters, Das Verschwundene|The Disappeared, A Sweet Spell of Oblivion, On the Nature of Daylight, and The World According to Us. Dawson was nominated for the highest dance prize of The Netherlands, The Golden Swan Award, as Best Choreographer for 00:00, and received the Choo San Goh
Award for Choreography for The Gentle Chapters.
Dawson’s most recent works include his highly acclaimed, The Third Light and dancingmadlybackwards. 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 has been nominated as Best Classical Choreographer for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award and the Prix Benois de la Danse
Choreography Award. David Dawson and his Faun(e) were featured in the BBC
documentary 'For Art’s Sake: The Story of the Ballets Russes'.
David Dawson's latest choreography to date, timelapse/(Mnemosyne), saw its world premiere with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam during the Holland Festival in 2011. He is currently working on his newest creation, day4, set to music specially commissioned by the English composer Greg Haines. day4 will have its world premiere on 15 February 2012 during the 'Present(s)' programme as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Dutch National Ballet.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) is one of the most respected names amongst the younger generation of choreographers working in the classical ballet idiom today.
Biography
Born in London, David Dawson began to dance at the age of 7 and received his early training at Rona Hart School of Dance, Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet SchoolRoyal Ballet School
The Royal Ballet School is one of the most famous classical ballet schools in the world and is the associate school of the Royal Ballet, a leading international ballet company based at the Royal Opera House in London...
where he was trained in dance and choreography. In 1991 he received the Alicia Markova
Alicia Markova
Dame Alicia Markova, DBE, DMus, was an English ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the...
Award, won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne
Prix de Lausanne
The Prix de Lausanne is an International dance competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland. The competition is for young dancers seeking to pursue a professional career in classical ballet, and many former prize winners of the competition are now leading stars with major ballet companies...
and the same year he was offered a contract by the Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the three major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet....
. Under the direction of Sir Peter Wright he was soon performing 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
David Bintley
David Bintley, CBE, is a former English ballet dancer, the current artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and co-artistic director of the New National Theatre Tokyo ballet company.- About :...
. He was nominated as Best Newcomer of the Season by Dance & Dancers magazine in 1992.
He joined the English National Ballet
English National Ballet
English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin and based at Markova House in South Kensington, London, England. Along with the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Scottish Ballet, it is one of the four major ballet companies in Great...
under the direction of Derek Deane
Derek Deane
-Biography:Deane was raised in Redruth, Cornwall, England and trained in the Royal Ballet School. As a dancer, he eventually became a Principal Dancer with The Royal Ballet, later retiring from the stage and working as Deputy Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer at Teatro dell'Opera di...
in 1994 as a Soloist, and a year later moved to Amsterdam to perform with Wayne Eagling
Wayne Eagling
Wayne Eagling is a former Principal dancer of the Royal Ballet in London and is a leading international choreographer and director....
's Dutch National Ballet
Dutch National Ballet
Dutch National Ballet was formed in 1961 when the Amsterdams Ballet and the Nederlands Ballet merged. The company has been directed by Sonia Gaskell , Rudi van Dantzig , Wayne Eagling and is currently directed by Ted Brandsen. It is the largest dance company in the Netherlands and attracts many...
. Here Dawson was able to continue dancing in classical productions as well as exploring more neo-classical and modern repertoire in particular the works of George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
, Rudi van Dantzig
Rudi van Dantzig
Rudi van Dantzig , is a Dutch choreographer, ballet dancer and writer. Since 1965 he has been co-artistic leader of Het Nationale Ballet . After Sonia Gaskell and his other colleague left in 1971, he was the only artistic leader until 1991...
and Hans van Manen
Hans van Manen
Hans van Manen is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer.He is a son of a German housemaid. He studied under Sonia Gaskell, Françoise Adret and Nora Kiss. Van Manen wrote many ballets. He worked for the Dutch National Ballet from 1973 to 1985. He was awarded the Erasmus Prize in...
. 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 danced all over the world, worked with choreographers and created roles in new ballets including works by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Glen Tetley
Glen Tetley
Glen Tetley was an American ballet and modern dancer as well as a choreographer who mixed ballet and modern dance to create a new way of looking at dance, and is best known for his piece Pierrot Lunaire.-Biography:Glenford Andrew Tetley, Jr. was born on February 3, 1926 in Cleveland, Ohio...
, Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.-Early years:Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.she spend hours working on it to help her...
, Christopher Bruce
Christopher Bruce
Christopher Bruce is a choreographer and performer born in Leicester on 3 October 1945. He was Artistic Director of the Rambert Dance Company until 2002....
, Wayne Eagling, Ted Brandsen, Mauro Bigonzetti
Mauro Bigonzetti
Mauro Bigonzetti is an internationally acclaimed choreographer of contemporary ballet. Born in Rome in 1960, Bigonzetti trained at the ballet school of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and entered their company in 1979. In 1983 he joined the Reggio Emilia company Aterballetto, renowned for its...
, Itzik Gallili, Redha, Christopher D'Amboise. Subsequently, he joined Ballett Frankfurt, where he worked with William Forsythe
William Forsythe (dancer)
William Forsythe is an American dancer and choreographer resident in Frankfurt am Main in Hessen. He is known internationally for his work with the Ballett Frankfurt and The Forsythe Company...
and performed for two more years before deciding to devote his time to creating his own new works.
Between 2004 and 2009 Dawson was Resident Choreographer for the Dutch National Ballet and the Dresden Semperoper Ballet. Since September 1, 2010, David Dawson has been appointed Choreographer in Residence at the Royal Ballet of Flanders. His works have entered the repertoires of many leading ballet companies and have also been performed in more than 20 countries to much acclaim from both international critics and the public. He was honoured with the Prix Benois de la Danse
Prix Benois de la Danse
The Benois de la Danse is one of the most prestigious ballet competition. Founded by the International Dance Association in Moscow in 1991, it takes place each year on or around April 29 and is jury-based in its judging...
for choreography and nominated for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award as Best Classical Choreographer for The Grey Area. The process of choreographing this ballet was vividly illustrated in Tim Couchman's film The Grey Area in Creation.
Dawson has created numerous ballets internationally, including his full-length Giselle, which had its world premiere at the Semperoper
Semperoper
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden . It is located near the Elbe River in the historic center of Dresden, Germany.The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841...
. He created Reverence for the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet
Mariinsky Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies...
for which he was awarded Russia's highest theatre prize for visual art, the Golden Mask Award, as Best Choreographer, and became the first British choreographer to create a ballet for this legendary company. Amongst other significant works are 00:00, Morning Ground, The Gentle Chapters, Das Verschwundene|The Disappeared, A Sweet Spell of Oblivion, On the Nature of Daylight, and The World According to Us. Dawson was nominated for the highest dance prize of The Netherlands, The Golden Swan Award, as Best Choreographer for 00:00, and received the Choo San Goh
Choo San Goh
GOH Choo San , choreographer, was son of Kim Lok Goh, a merchant, and Siew Han Ch’ng.-Childhood:He was the youngest of ten children. His Chinese parents spoke Mandarin and the family was brought up with very traditional values. Goh was influenced by and followed in the path of three of his older...
Award for Choreography for The Gentle Chapters.
Dawson’s most recent works include his highly acclaimed, The Third Light and dancingmadlybackwards. For his re-imagining of Faun(e), created for the English National Ballet's Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
Festival at the Sadler’s Wells in London, Dawson has been nominated as Best Classical Choreographer for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award and the Prix Benois de la Danse
Prix Benois de la Danse
The Benois de la Danse is one of the most prestigious ballet competition. Founded by the International Dance Association in Moscow in 1991, it takes place each year on or around April 29 and is jury-based in its judging...
Choreography Award. David Dawson and his Faun(e) were featured in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
documentary 'For Art’s Sake: The Story of the Ballets Russes'.
David Dawson's latest choreography to date, timelapse/(Mnemosyne), saw its world premiere with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam during the Holland Festival in 2011. He is currently working on his newest creation, day4, set to music specially commissioned by the English composer Greg Haines. day4 will have its world premiere on 15 February 2012 during the 'Present(s)' programme as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Dutch National Ballet.
Choreographic Style
Having worked with classical balletic vocabulary for 30 years Dawson has a deep rooted knowledge of this dance language and uses it in his work trying to turn the ordinary step into something new. Through his unique style of movement Dawson expands the possibilities of the human body, develops the language of classical ballet and brings it onto another level by exploring new visions of dance and creating atmospheric stage worlds. Inspired by 'everything that has ever existed and everything that exists now', Dawson’s goal is to explore his artistic ideas through dance, music and performance, and create balletic works that can be viewed as modern art. To make classical ballets that are alive, relevant and contemporary.Creations
- 2013 - BANG - *in production
- 2012 - day4 - *in production
- 2011 - somewhere music is playing... - *in production
- 2011 - timelapse/(Mnemosyne)
- 2010 - dancingmadlybackwards
- 2010 - The Third Light
- 2009 - Faun(e)
- 2009 - The World According to Us
- 2008 - Giselle
- 2007 - On the Nature of Daylight
- 2007 - A Sweet Spell of Oblivion
- 2006 - Das Verschwundene|The Disappeared
- 2006 - The Gentle Chapters
- 2005 - Reverence
- 2004 - Morning Ground
- 2004 - 00:00
- 2002 - The Grey Area
- 2000 - A Million Kisses to my Skin
- 1999 - Psychic Whack
- 1998 - Step|Study
- 1998 - Scenes from an Interview
- 1997 - Born Slippy
Honours
- 2010 - Benois de la Danse Choreography Award Nominee as Best Choreographer for the creation of Faun(e)
- 2010 - UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award Nominee as Best Classical Choreographer for the creation of Faun(e)
- 2006 - Golden Mask Award (Russian Federation) Winner as Best Choreographer for the creation of Reverence
- 2006 - Choo San Goh Choreography Award Winner for the creation of The Gentle Chapters
- 2005 - UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award Nominee as Best Classical Choreographer for The Grey Area
- 2003 - Benois de la Danse Choreography Award Winner for Best Choreographer for the creation of The Grey Area
- 2003 - Golden Swan Award Nominee for Best New Production in The Netherlands for the creation of 00:00
- 1992 - Best Newcomer of the Season Nominee by Dance & Dancers magazine
- 1991 - Prix de Lausanne Winner
- 1991 - Alicia Markova Award Winner
External links
- Official Website
- Dutch National Ballet trailer of David Dawson's newest creation timelapse/(Mnemosyne)
- David Dawson working on the new creation, timelapse/(Mnemosyne) for the Dutch National Ballet
- Sneak peek of the new creation, timelapse/(Mnemosyne), for the Dutch National Ballet
- Interview with Base Now (New York) | Part 1
- Interview with Base Now (New York) | Part 2
- The Telegraph
- Wall Street Journal Europe
- Tanznetz Magazine
- The Grey Area in Creation ( 2002 Tim Couchman’s documentary on David Dawson creating his award-winning breakthrough ballet for Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam) | Part 1
- The Grey Area in Creation | Part 2
- The Grey Area in Creation | Part 3
- Rehearsing the dancers of the Dutch National Ballet for the Dutch premiere of his ballet 'Reverence'
- Dawson appears in the BBC documentary, For Art's Sake: The Story of the Ballets Russes - discussing his 'Faun(e)'
- The World According to Us
- Giselle | Wedding Pas de Cinq
- Giselle | Act 1 Grand Pas de Deux
- On the Nature of Daylight
- A Sweet Spell of Oblivion | 1st Variation
- A Sweet Spell of Oblivion | 3rd Variation
- A Sweet Spell of Oblivion | 5th Variation
- Das Verschwundene | The Disappeared
- Morning Ground
- The Grey Area
- A Million Kisses to my Skin