Photo by Oliver Look.

Biographie

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.

David 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, David 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 Het Nationale 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 was Resident Choreographer for Het Nationale Ballet, the Semperoper Ballett and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. David 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.

David 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 David 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 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 English National Ballet in 1994 as a soloist and a year later moved to Amsterdam to perform with Het Nationale 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, The National Ballet of Canada, Ballett Dortmund, Het Nationale Ballet, Het Nationale Ballet Junior Company, Dresden SemperOper Ballett, English National Ballet, Aalto Ballet Theatre Essen, Finnish National Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Teatro alla 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.