Anthony Dowell


Sir Anthony James Dowell is a retired British ballet dancer and a former artistic director of the Royal Ballet. He is widely recognized as one of the great danseurs nobles of the twentieth century.

Early life and training

Born in London, Dowell began his dance training there in 1948, at the age of five. His first ballet teacher was June Hampshire, who nurtured her young pupil and instilled in him the discipline necessary for serious students of ballet. When he was ten years old, he enrolled in the Sadler's Wells Ballet School, then located in Barons Court, and embarked on a course of training for young people interested in pursuing a career in dance.
In 1955, the school moved to White Lodge, Richmond Park, and became residential, combining general education and vocational ballet training. In 1956, when a royal charter was granted to the Sadler's Wells Ballet, the school was renamed the Royal Ballet School. Dowell continued his training there, moving to the Barons Court studios for the final three years of his course of study. Upon his graduation in 1960, he was immediately taken into the Covent Garden Opera Ballet. After a year dancing with this company, he was invited to join The Royal Ballet.

Performing career

Among the first to recognize Dowell's potential was the Danish dancer Erik Bruhn. As guest choreographer with the Royal Ballet, he gave Dowell a sparkling solo variation in his 1962 staging of the famous pas de six from August Bournonville's Napoli. Thereafter, Dowell's talent and extraordinary abilities could not be ignored. In 1964, Frederick Ashton, chief choreographer of the company, chose him to create the role of Oberon in The Dream, a balletic retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. With his quicksilver technique and impeccable line, Dowell made the role his own and established himself in the top tier of the company's male dancers. Dancing to Mendelssohn's melodic "Nocturne" with Antoinette Sibley as Titania, he took the first steps in forming what became a lasting and legendary partnership, as their slender, blond looks and classical purity found a startling echo in each other. In 1965, Dowell was cast in Ashton's elegant and serene Monotones and then as the boisterous Benvolio in Kenneth MacMillan's historic production of Romeo and Juliet.
When Dowell was promoted to principal dancer in 1966, he was already the embodiment of the English classical style: cool, lyrical, aristocratic, and restrained. If the role of Oberon had drawn out a quality of magical glamour from him, the experience of working with Antony Tudor in 1967 on the leading role of Shadowplay considerably deepened his dramatic expression. He subsequently created dramatic roles in the ballets of Ashton, MacMillan, and others. Among the most important were Troyte in Ashton's Enigma Variations, Des Grieux in MacMillan's Manon, and Beliaev in Ashton's A Month in the Country. In the classical repertory, he appeared in princely roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. He undertook more lighthearted roles in La fille mal gardée, Card Game, and Varii Capricci, with which, in 1983, Ashton celebrated his continued partnership with Sibley. He was also praised for the passion and musicality he brought to leading roles in Ashton's Cinderella, Daphnis and Chloe, and Symphonic Variations, in MacMillan's Song of the Earth and Romeo and Juliet, in Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering and In the Night, and in George Balanchine's Agon.
In the early 1970s, Dowell began to explore activities away from the ballet stage. Trying his hand at costume design, he created stage wear for himself and Sibley in Ashton's Meditation from Thaïs and for dancers in MacMillan's Pavane, in Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and Symphony in C, and in Robbins's In the Night. He also began to look for opportunities beyond Covent Garden. Between 1978 and 1980, he took leave of absence from the Royal Ballet to dance as guest artist with American Ballet Theatre in New York. There he added Solor in La Bayadère and Basilio in Don Quixote to his roster of leading roles. Along with experiencing the challenges of a new repertory, he partnered such bright stars as Natalia Makarova in Swan Lake and Gelsey Kirkland in Romeo and Juliet. After his official retirement from the Royal Ballet in 1984, he continued to make occasional dance appearances well into his fifties, creating roles in MacMillan's Winter Dreams in 1991 and in Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker in 1999.

Roles created

Among the many roles created by Dowell in his long career are the following.
  • 1964. The Dream, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Felix Mendelssohn, arranged by John Lanchbery. Role: Oberon, with Antoinette Sibley as Titania.
  • 1965. Monotones, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Erik Satie, orchestrated by Claude Debussy and Roland-Manuel. Role: a pas de trois with Vyvyan Lorrayne and Robert Mead.
  • 1965. Romeo and Juliet, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Sergei Prokofiev. Role: Benvolio.
  • 1967. Shadowplay, choreography by Antony Tudor, music by Charles Koechlin. Role: The Boy with Matted Hair.
  • 1968. Jazz Calendar, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Richard Rodney Bennett. Role: Tuesday, a pas de trois with Merle Park and Robert Mead.
  • 1968. Enigma Variations , choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Edward Elgar. Role: Arthur Troyte Griffith, Malvern architect and close friend.
  • 1971. Anastasia, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Bohuslav Martinů, with electronic music by Fritz Winckel and Rũdiger Rûfer. Role: a pas de deux with Antoinette Sibley as ballerina Matilde Kchessinska.
  • 1972. Meditation from Thaïs, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Jules Massenet. Role: a pas de deux with Antoinette Sibley.
  • 1972. Triad, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Sergei Prokofiev. Role: Elder Brother, with Wayne Eagling as the Younger Brother and Antoinette Sibley as their love interest.
  • 1974. Manon, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Jules Massenet, arranged by Leighton Lucas with Hilda Graunt. Role: Des Grieux, a student, with Antoinette Sibley as Manon.
  • 1975. Four Schumann Pieces, choreography by Hans van Manen, music by Robert Schumann. Role: principal dancer.
  • 1975. The Four Seasons, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Giuseppe Verdi. Role: Autumn.
  • 1976. A Month in the Country, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Frédéric Chopin, arranged by John Lanchbery. Role: Beliaev, Kolias' tutor, with Lynn Seymour as Natalia Petrovna.
  • 1980. Soupirs, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Edward Elgar. Role: a pas de deux with Antoinette Sibley.
  • 1980. La Bayadère, choreography by Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa, music by Ludwig Minkus. Role: Solor.
  • 1982. The Tempest, choreography by Rudolf Nureyev, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arranged by John Lanchbery. Role: Prospero.
  • 1982. Le Chant du Rossignol, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Igor Stravinsky. Role: The Fisherman, with Natalia Makarova as the Nightingale.
  • 1983. Varii Capricci, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by William Walton. Role: Lo Straniero, a gigolo, with Antoinette Sibley as his client.
  • 1989. The Prince of the Pagodas, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Benjamin Britten. Role: The Emperor.
  • 1991. Winter Dreams, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arranged by Philip Gammon, traditional Russian music arranged for guitar ensemble by Thomas Hartman. Role: Kulygin, the betrayed husband, with Darcey Bussell as Masha.
  • 1994. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a BBC Television production for Dance for the Camera, choreography by Will Tuckett. Role: The Mariner.
  • 1999. The Nutcracker, produced by Peter Wright, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Role: Herr Drosselmeyer.

    Videography

The dancing of Anthony Dowell can be viewed on a number of commercially available DVDs, listed below. Those issued under the Kultur label were produced by BBC Television in association with NVC Arts, Warner Music Division.
  • 1969. Cinderella, choreography by Frederick Ashton. The Royal Ballet, with Antoinette Sibley as Cinderella, Dowell as the Prince, and Ashton and Robert Helpmann as the Ugly Sisters. Kultur DVD, D0093, released 1976.
  • 1977, Valentino. A film written and directed by Ken Russell, with Rudolf Nureyev as Valentino, Leslie Caron as Alla Nazimova and Dowell as Vaslav Nijinsky. United Artists, Chartoff-Winkler Productions.
  • 1980. Swan Lake, original choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, additional choreography by Frederick Ashton and Rudolf Nureyev. The Royal Ballet, with Natalia Makarova as Odette/Odile and Dowell as Prince Siegfried. Kultur DVD, D1408, released 2003.
  • 1982. Manon, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan. The Royal Ballet, with Jennifer Penney as Manon, Dowell as the Chevalier des Grieux, and David Wall as Lescaut, her cousin. Kultur DVD, D2096, released 1982.
  • 1985. The Nutcracker, produced by Peter Wright. The Royal Ballet, with Lesley Collier as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Dowell as her prince. Kultur DVD.
  • 1974–1985. Great Pas de Deux, a collection. Anthony Dowell appears in three selections: the grand pas de deux from Peter Wright's staging of The Nutcracker, with Lesley Collier; the bedroom pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, with Jennifer Penney; and the final pas de deux from Frederick Ashton's A Month in the Country, with Natalia Makarova. Kultur DVD, D2022, released 1997.
  • 1990. The Prince of the Pagodas, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan. The Royal Ballet, with Darcey Bussell as Princess Rose, Jonathan Cope as the Prince, and Dowell as the Emperor. Kultur DVD.
  • 1991. Winter Dreams, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan. The Royal Ballet, with Darcey Bussell as Masha, Dowell as Kulygin, her husband and Viviana Durante as Irina. Kultur DVD.
  • 1994. The Sleeping Beauty, original choreography by Marius Petipa, additional choreography by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, and Feodor Lopukov. The Royal Ballet, with Viviana Durante as Aurora, Zoltán Solymosi as Prince Désiré, Benazir Hussein as the Lilac Fairy, and Dowell as Carabosse. Opus Arte DVD.
  • 1999. The Nutcracker, produced by Peter Wright. The Royal Ballet, with Alina Cojocaru as Clara, Ivan Putrov as The Nutcracker/Hans-Peter, and Dowell as Drosselmeyer. Opus Arte DVD.