David Dawson
Age: 46 Provenance: Born and lives in London. Training: Royal Ballet School; winner of the 1991 Prix de Lausanne. Career: Danced with Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Dutch National Ballet, and with William Forsythe at Ballett Frankfurt, before becoming a choreographer in 2002. Small world: Dawson created three of his earliest ballets on S.F. Ballet principal dancer Sofiane Sylve when she was a member of DNB. Working together again “is a dream come true,” he says. What he’s created: “In ballet, it’s a lot of the archetype of the female and the male. I’m trying to create almost a genderless language,” he says of “Anima Animus,” his first American commission, which is set to Ezio Bosso’s Violin Concerto No. 1, “Esoconcerto.” As inventive and edgy as the choreography is, it also yearns for transcendence. “I had the idea of looking up at the ceilings of cathedrals,” Dawson says of a series of complex lifts. “You see these incredible paintings of angels, flying through the air.” Unbound growth: Dawson normally allows five weeks to create a new work. “I’ve made this in eight days, and I’ve learned to not have fear, to trust in my work. It’s an awesome experience.” On the festival: “What’s gorgeous is that in the room next door, in the room down the hall, there are other ballets being made, all at the same moment. I love that.”
— Claudia Bauer