Mr Christopher Bannerman

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 15 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 Paul Clarke Memorial Award, 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, as a member of the Trustee's Committee of Akademi (formerly the Academy of Indian Dance) as well as an Adviser to the London Arts Board. With Dance UK he worked to improve the profile of dance and helped to organise conferences and seminars on issues of concern to the profession, from dancers' health to housing for dance.

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 is now Programme Leader for the MA Choreography and Head of ResCen, the Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts at Middlesex University. This reflects his deep interest in the creative powers of artists and the ways in which these activities link and intersect the art forms. In addition, he currently serves as Chair of the Arts Council of England's Advisory Panel for Dance, the Council of the ISTD and serves as a member of the Committee of the Theatre Museum.