Background & Training
Christopher Bruce was born in England on the 3rd of October 1945. He grew up in … He started dancing at the age of 11 at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and joined the company in 1963, where he quickly became the principle male dancer. He performed in works such as Don Quixote in 1964 and Coppelia 1966. The company then started experiment with ballet and modern dance combining them to create new works. The Martha Graham technique was used throughout these works and Christopher Bruce added his own personal interpretation to make the performance really unique. In 1977 he was appointed associate director of the company and was associate director from 1979 – 87 where he created over 20 works for the company. He worked as associate choreographer for the London Festival Ballet and the English National Ballet from 1986 – 91 before becoming resident choreographer for the Houston Ballet in 1989. In 1994 he became the artistic director of the Rambert Dance Company. He incorporated political issues of the time into his works as well as combining ballet and modern dance. Christopher Bruce often used popular music of the time such as, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.
Influences
Political issues of the time and issues of society heavily influenced Christopher Bruce but his aim was always to create a performance. He used a wide range of resources to create inspiration for his works some of which include: poetry, newspaper articles, literature, and music. Christopher Bruce always created a strong under current of emotion in his works that helped to engage the audience in the story or idea of the dance. He was a strong supporter of Amnesty International’s works and ideas. He voiced his opinions and views of society through his choreography with his works displaying issues such as war, imprisonment, dysfunctional relationships, and the dead.
His works
Christopher Bruce was a very successful choreographer and created a total of five productions. They include: Cruel Garden 1977, Ghost dances, 1981
