Anthony Dowell

A number of traditional dance passages, created by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov for their 1885 revival.

were cut, much to the displeasure of balletomanes.

Sir Anthony James Dowell (born 16 February 1943) 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.

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.

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 (1968), Des Grieux in MacMillan's Manon (1974), and Beliaev in Ashton's A Month in the Country (1976).

In the classical repertory, he appeared in princely roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.

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.

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.

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.

Among the many roles created by Dowell in his long career are the following.

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.

In 1984, Dowell was appointed assistant to Norman Morrice, director of the Royal Ballet.

A year later he was made associate director, and in 1986 he was promoted to the post of artistic director of the company.

During his tenure, he succeeded in checking declining technical standards among the soloists and the corps de ballet, and he encouraged and nurtured many world-class talents, among them Darcey Bussell, Jonathan Cope, Sylvie Guillem, and Carlos Acosta.

In 1987, his new production of Swan Lake Drew Sharp criticism from the press and audiences alike.