Australia Dancing - Dow, Simon (1955

Dow, Simon (1955 - )

Green, John: Simon Dow in rehearsal for 'La Boheme', West Australian Ballet, 2004

Born in Melbourne, Simon Dow began his dance training with Lucie Saronova, Athol Willoughby and William Carse and, at the age of twelve, was the first male dancer to win the Australian Cecchetti Junior Medal. He continued his training at the Australian Ballet School where his teachers included Dame Margaret Scott, Leon Kellaway, Bruce Morrow, Jurgen Schneider and Marina Berezowsky. At the conclusion of his three year course at the school Dow joined the Australian Ballet where he danced many roles in the repertoire.

He left Australia in the mid 1970s and danced with Stuttgart Ballet and then Washington Ballet before returning to Australia in 1982 as a principal artist. Subsequently he danced with San Francisco Ballet and Boston Ballet before pursuing a freelance career. Dow made frequent guest appearances at many of North America’s prestigious dance festivals including the Mann Performing Arts Centre in Philadelphia, the Spoleto Festival, Wolf Trap Farm Park, the International Festival of Dance in Havana Cuba, and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. He has danced all the major classical roles as well as leading roles in works by such contemporary choreographers as Maurice Bejart, George Balanchine, Glen Tetley, Jiri Kylian, John Neumeier, David Bintley, Helgi Tomasson, Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, Choo San Goh, William Forsythe, James Kudelka and many others.

Dow was associate artistic director of the Washington Ballet for two seasons - 1992-1993 and 1996-1997. He was appointed artistic director of the Milwaukee Ballet in September 1999 and for that company created seven new works. While in Milwaukee he also organised Genesis the first Milwaukee international choreographic competition.

In 2002, Dow was appointed artistic director of West Australian Ballet and began his tenure there in January of 2003. He commissioned a number of new works for West Australian Ballet from Australian choreographers and created his own works for the company including his evening-length retelling of La Boheme, which premiered in 2004, Cinderella in 2005 and The Red Shoes, 2006. Dow resigned from his appointment with the West Australian Ballet at the end of 2006 to pursue his career as an independent choreographer. His first freelance commissions include A Streetcar Named Desire for the West Australian Ballet and a full-length work for the Shanghai Ballet.

Bibliography:

Lee Christofis, 'Simon Dow's gamble - La Boheme - the ballet', Brolga, 21 (December 2004), pp. 25-38.

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Find more about Dow, Simon in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia
Collection - OzLife