David Dawson

British choreographer David Dawson is one of the leading dance makers working in classical ballet today. His style transforms classical ballet in new ways, and his signature works have been praised by critics and audiences worldwide. Mr Dawson trained at the Rona Hart School of Dance, Arts Educational School and The Royal Ballet School. In 1991 he won the professional prize at the Prix de Lausanne, and the same year joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet. He joined the English National Ballet in 1994 as a soloist, and a year later moved to Amsterdam to perform with Dutch National Ballet. In 2000, he joined Ballet Frankfurt, where he worked with William Forsythe and performed for two more years before creating his own new works. Dawson was honoured with the Prix Benois de la Danse Award for choreography and nominated for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for "The Grey Area". He created "Reverence" for the Mariinsky Ballet, for which he was awarded Russia’s highest theatre prize for visual art, the Golden Mask Award, while becoming the first British choreographer to create a ballet for this legendary company. He received the Choo San Goh Award for "The Gentle Chapters" and was nominated for The Golden Swan Award, for "Overture" and "00:00". For his re-imagining of "Faun(e)", created for English National Ballet, Mr Dawson was nominated for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award and the Prix Benois de la Danse Choreography Award. Mr Dawson has created numerous ballets internationally, including his full-length creations of "Romeo and Juliet", "Swan Lake", "Giselle", and "Tristan + Isolde". His choreographic repertoire also includes "Four Last Songs", "Legacy Variations", "Affairs of the Heart", "Voices", among many other creations, and his highly acclaimed "timelapse/(Mnemosyne)". For film Dawson created his "7 Portraits of Solitude" for the dancers of the Semperoper Ballett, "Styx" for Maria Kochetkova and "The Swan" for Scottish Ballet. Mr Dawson’s works have been introduced to the repertoires of many leading ballet companies including Boston Ballet, Ballet National de Marseilles, National Ballet of Canada, Dutch National Ballet, English National Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet, La Scala Milan, National Ballet of Japan, Norwegian National Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Royal New Zealand Ballet, The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Slovenian National Ballet, Ballet de l’Opéra national du Capitole – Toulouse Métropole, Tulsa Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Vienna State Opera Ballet.