DOWELL TO LEAVE ROYAL BALLET IN 2001.

LONDON--Sir Anthony Dowell announced on June 2 that he will retire as director of the Royal Ballet in August 2001. By then he will have led the company through its first two seasons at the newly refurbished Royal Opera House, which is due to reopen this October. The board of directors hopes to name his successor in 2000.

Dowell, who graduated from the Royal Ballet School in 1961, has spent his entire professional life with the company, except for a brief period (1978-80) when he joined American Ballet Theatre. He was a true danseur noble, a fine exponent in his generation of the British style, imbuing his dancing with refinement, softness, and elegance. He became company director in 1986, and has held the position, despite occasional criticism of his authority and choice of repertory, longer than any of his four predecessors since Dame Ninette de Valois founded the company in 1931.

"I have spent my entire life with the Royal Ballet, and the decision about when to leave `the family' is a momentous one to make," Dowell stated in his announcement. "Both in deciding on this date, and in deciding to announce it now, my paramount consideration is for the best interests of the company.

"The first two years in the new theater will be as crucial as they are eagerly anticipated by us all. As director, I greatly look forward to seeing all our plans for the new theater come to fruition and to leading the company as we establish ourselves in our wonderful new facilities at the Royal Opera House following the challenges of the last few years. The fact that all our work, both rehearsals and performances, will be taking place at Covent Garden for the first time in the company's history will bring untold benefits and possibilities. We will have made great progress in exploring them during our first two seasons, and I am confident that I will be able to pass on the best possible inheritance to my successor in two years' time."

Dowell has recently appointed several new dancers for next season. Johan Kobborg, the elegant and buoyant Danish dancer who won the Grand Prix at Jackson in 1994 and has been a principal with the Royal Danish Ballet, joins the British company as a full-fledged principal. Also joining as first soloists will be Nigel Burley and his wife, Rachel Rawlins, both soloists from the Australian Ballet. Guesting with the company will be Angel Corella, Ethan Stiefel, and Italian Roberto Bolle, who will amply help fill the gaping hole in the male ranks made when five principals left the company late last autumn due to management conflicts and uncertainty about the future.