He started his career as a soloist with The Royal Ballet in London, but formed the Jonathan Burrows Group in 1988 to present his own work.
Other high-profile collaborators include Sylvie Guillem's performance of his choreography in Adam Robert's film Blue Yellow in 1996, and his invitation in 1997 to choreograph for William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt.
Born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England, in 1960, Burrows studied at the Royal Ballet School, both White Lodge, Richmond Park and Baron's Court venues, London, 1970–79, under Richard Gladstone.
In 1995–96, Burrows entered into co-productions with theatres in Ghent (Belgium), Angers (France), and Utrecht (Netherlands), and in 1997 he choreographed for William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt.
He was artist-in-residence at Southbank Centre, London (1998–99), associate artist at Kunstencentrum Vooruit in Ghent, Belgium (1992–2002), and a visiting member of faculty at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S), the school of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in Brussels, 1999–2002.
[5][6][7] [6][7] [7] Burrows and Fargion are among the most widely travelled of UK performance artists and have gained an international reputation for the intelligence, humour and musicality of their shows.
Sitting on chairs drawn up close to the audience, staring at music and dance "scores" at their feet, the two men draw us into a silent, unexpected and often funny conversation for two pairs of arms.
But the point of the duet is that they are able to magic their restricted vocabulary into sophisticated dance and music, twisting simple gestures into a variety of shapes and rhythms so that they mesmerise and dazzle.
[11][13] The critic Judith Mackrell[19] has described aspects of Burrows' style as emanating from the influences of folk-dance, classicism and more weighted postmodern dance movement.
Gothard drew together important artists and Burrows would see Samuel Beckett and Dario Fo around the theatre, and John Cage and Merce Cunningham duets were performed there.
After seeing them in the early 1980s, American post modern dance, especially the Judson Church generation of choreographers from New York, such as David Gordon, Steve Paxton, Trisha Brown, and Lucinda Childs and also Douglas Dunn and their Contact improvisation began to influence his thinking.
[20] Burrows learnt traditional English Morris dancing at White Lodge Royal Ballet School, and both he and critics have named this as another possible source of influence in his style.