 At age fifty-eight, he had served fifteen years as director of the Royal Ballet, and British theatregoers paid him well-deserved homage for what he had accomplished in that post as well as for his stage career as one of the most admired and beloved dancers in the company's history.After stepping down as artistic director of the company, Dowell staged productions of several works in his repertory, notably "The Dream", which he mounted for American Ballet Theatre, Ballet West, the Joffrey Ballet, the Tokyo Ballet, and the Dutch National Ballet.He also appeared as the narrator of Igor Stravinsky's opera-oratorio "Oedipus rex" at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and for the Joffrey and Royal Ballet productions of Ashton's "A Wedding Bouquet", speaking the verses of Gertrude Stein.