Bharathanatyam Dancer
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Christopher is a full-time professional Bharatanatyam artiste, based in Sydney, Australia and Chennai, India. He is regarded as one of the frontrunners of his generation having performed extensively within India and globally. He adheres to the grammar of the form, his aesthetics, and contemporary sensibilities which reflect fresh perspectives that both revisit and deconstruct the traditional repertoire, drawing from lived experiences in Australia and India.
Born and raised in Perth, Western Australia, Christopher moved to India at the age of 18, and is the first Australian to study at the renowned dance and arts institution Kalakshetra. Christopher attended the college from 2005 to 2011 during the tenure of Leela Samson as Director, receiving a first-class post-graduate diploma in 2011. He was soon invited to be a member of Leela Samson’s Spanda Dance Company, performing, touring and working with the renowned titular dancer as a lead member of her troupe from 2012 to 2017.
As a highly popular soloist, Christopher performs annually in Chennai’s prestigious December Season including for the Madras Music Academy, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, and Narada Gana Sabha, and has been invited to speak and present his work at major conferences around the world.
He has received widespread critical acclaim including the Narasimhachari Youth Dance Award (Narada Gana Sabha, 2022), being named Best Dance of 2017 (New York Times), HCL Best Performer (Madras Music Academy, 2015) and was conferred the Kalavahini Fellowship for Choreography by leading dancer Malavika Sarukkai in 2018. Christopher has been commissioned to create several new works, including at present by Narada Gana Sabha for their upcoming Natyarangam Festival - for which he will premiere “Dreaming in Sand, Sky and Sea” (August 2023).
He continues his advanced training with Bragha Bessell, with whom he has studied abhinaya (emotive dance) for over a decade.
In 2019, he worked with the Akram Khan Company (UK) in a professional development opportunity supported by a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts.
