Posted: March 2021
Christopher Bannerman began his career in dance in Canada where he danced with The National Ballet of Canada. Deciding to pursue his interest in South Asian art forms and culture, he left the company and travelled extensively in South Asia. On returning to the west he came to London where he retrained at the London Contemporary Dance School.
He danced and choreographed for a number of companies both in Britain and internationally, before joining the London Contemporary Dance Theatre where, for fifteen years, he performed numerous principal roles, was active as an arts education worker and choreographed many works. He performed throughout the world including at the Olympic Arts Festivals at both the Los Angeles and the Seoul Olympics.
In 1989 he became Head of School of Dance at Middlesex University and in November 1992 he received the title of Professor of Dance. His Inaugural Lecture contained sections of live dance, one of which he performed himself and the lecture was repeated as a public performance event as part of the Dance Umbrella Festival.
He has served as a judge for the Digital Dance Awards, the Prudential Awards for the Arts and the Olivier Awards, as a panel member on the Drama, Dance and Performing Arts Panel for the Higher Education Research Assessment Exercise and as a Specialist Assessor for the Quality Assurance Agency. He has also served as Chair of Dance UK, Chair of the National Dance Coordinating Committee and Chair of the Arts Council of England Dance Panel.
In 2001 he choreographed a quartet section of the South Asian Dance celebration Coming of Age at London’s South Bank Centre and also returned to the stage in a duet with South Asian dancer Mavin Khoo in Cast in Stone.
He co-edited Navigating the Unknown: The creative process in contemporary performing arts (London: MU Press/ResCen Publications, 2006) and recently wrote ‘Proximity, Wisdom and Creativity’ in Creativity and Wisdom in Education, eds A. Craft, G. Claxton, H. Gardner (California: Corwin Press, 2007).
He was a member of the Dance Forum of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the College of Reviewers for the Canada Research Chairs Programme.