David Dawson (choreographer)

David Dawson, (born 4 March 1972) is a British dancer and choreographer. Since his career debut, Dawson has released over 20 creations. Noted for his atmospheric, emotionally physical pieces, Dawson received numerous honours and awards.

Education and dance career

Born in London, Dawson began to dance at the age of 7 and received his early training at the Rona Hart School of Dance and the Arts Educational School. He went on to train at the Royal Ballet School, 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, he 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, and Christopher D'Amboise.

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

Choreographic career

Dawson choreographed his first ballet in 1997, while with the Dutch National Ballet. It's 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 became the first British choreographer to create a ballet (''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. 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 th
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 Dresden 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

*2015 - ''Empire Noir''
*2015 - ''Tristan + Isolde''
*2013 - ''The Human Seasons''
*2013 - ''Opus.11''
*2013 - ''5''
*2013 - ''Overture''
*2012 - ''day4''
*2011 - ''somewhere music is playing...''
*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

*2014 - UK Critics' Circle National Dance Nominee as Best Classical Choreographer for the creation of ''The Human Seasons'' (The winners will be announced at a lunchtime ceremony to be held at a central London venue on Monday, 26 January 2015)
*2013 - Golden Swan Award Nominee for Best New Production in The Netherlands for the creation of ''Overture''
* 2010 - Prix Benois de la Danse Choreography 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 - Prix Benois de la Danse Choreography 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

References

External links

Official Website
* Британский хореограф Дэвид Доусон (Russian Version)
David Dawson on TwitterDutch National Ballet trailer of David Dawson's newest creation timelapse/(Mnemosyne)David Dawson working on the new creation, timelapse/(Mnemosyne) for the Dutch National BalletSneak peek of the new creation, timelapse/(Mnemosyne), for the Dutch National BalletTanznetz MagazineThe 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 1The Grey Area in Creation , Part 2The Grey Area in Creation , Part 3Rehearsing 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 UsGiselle , Wedding Pas de Cinq Giselle , Act 1 Grand Pas de DeuxOn the Nature of DaylightA Sweet Spell of Oblivion , 1st Variation A Sweet Spell of Oblivion , 3rd VariationA Sweet Spell of Oblivion , 5th Variation Das Verschwundene , The DisappearedMorning GroundThe Grey AreaA Million Kisses to my Skin

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, David
Ballet choreographers
Prix de Lausanne winners
Prix Benois de la Danse winners
1972 births
Living people