About David Dawson

British choreographer David Dawson is one of the leading dance makers working in classical ballet today. His choreographic style transforms classical ballet in new ways, and his signature works have been praised by critics and audiences worldwide.

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, Dawson was nominated for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award and the Prix Benois de la Danse Choreography Award.

He has been Associate Artist with the Dutch National Ballet since 2015, and Associate Artist with Semperoper Ballett since 2020. He was given the honoured positions of Artistic Patron to Junior Ballet Antwerp, and Choreographer Laureate of European School of Ballet in 2019. Between 2004 and 2012 David Dawson was Resident Choreographer for the Dutch National Ballet, the Semperoper Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Dawson has also been invited as a Jury member of the Prix Benois de la Danse in Moscow and Dance Open International Ballet Festival in St Petersburg.

Dawson has created numerous ballets internationally, including his full-length creations of Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Giselle, and Tristan + Isolde. Other signiﬁcant works are; Affairs of the Heart, Voices, Metamorphosis, Four Last Songs, Requiem, The Four Seasons, Anima Animus, Citizen Nowhere, On the Nature of Daylight, A Million Kisses to my Skin, Empire Noir, The Human Seasons, Day4, The Third Light, Morning Ground, The Disappeared, A Sweet Spell of Oblivion, The World According to Us, 5, Opus.11, Styx, At the End of the Day, and his highly acclaimed timelapse/(Mnemosyne). For film Dawson has created his 7 Portraits of Solitude for the dancers of the Semperoper Ballett, The Swan for Scottish Ballet, and One for star dancer Daniil Simkin.

Born in London in 1972, David 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 prestigious 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. Subsequently, he joined Ballet Frankfurt in 2000, where he worked with William Forsythe and performed for two more years before deciding to devote his time to creating his own new works.

His creations have been introduced to the repertoires of many ballet companies including Berlin StaatsBallett, Boston Ballet, Ballet National de Marseilles, Bayerisches Staatsballett, National Ballet of Canada, Ballett Dortmund, Dutch National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Dresden SemperOper Ballett, English National Ballet, Aalto Ballet Theatre Essen, Finnish National Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, La Scala Milan, National Ballet of Japan, Norwegian National Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Royal New Zealand Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Saarbrücken Staatstheater Ballett, San Francisco Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Slovenian National Ballet, Ballet du Capitole Toulouse, Tulsa Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Vienna State Opera Ballet.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

2019
The Isadora Duncan Dance Award (The Izzies) Nominee for Achievement in Choreography for Anima Animus

2014
UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award Nominee as Best Classical Choreographer for The Human Seasons

2013
Golden Swan Award Nominee for Most Impressive Dance Production in The Netherlands for the creation of Overture

2010
Benois de la Danse Choreography Award Nominee as Best Choreographer for the creation of Faun(e)
UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award Nominee as Best Classical Choreographer for the creation of Faun(e)

2006
Golden Mask Award Winner as Best Choreographer for the creation of Reverence
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
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
Alicia Markova Award Winner