Christopher Williams
Dance
New York, NY
"Christopher Williams (he/him), hailed as “one of the most exciting choreographic voices out there"" (The New York Times) and “the downtown prodigy"" (The New Yorker), is a choreographer/dancer/puppet artist who has created over forty original and collaborative works in New York City and abroad since 1999. In addition to touring internationally in France, England, Italy, Spain, Holland, Colombia, Malawi, Indonesia, and Russia, as well as nationally in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Kalamazoo, Walla Walla, Princeton, Bainbridge Island, Lewiston, Carlisle, Interlochen, Kaatsbaan, and Jacob's Pillow, his works have been presented in many local venues including Lincoln Center, City Center, Baryshnikov Arts, The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, La MaMa, P.S. 122, HERE Arts Center, the 92nd Street Y, and Judson Church, as well as in the Late Night Cabaret of the Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater, and via American Opera Projects in OPERA America′s New Works Forum.
Christopher was named a choreography fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2021 and received a New York Dance & Performance “Bessie"" Award in 2005 for his work Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins (2005). He has been awarded fellowships from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Center for Ballet and the Arts, & the Bogliasco Foundation, and was granted a Bessie Schönberg Memorial Endowed Fellowship for a residency at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. He was one of four finalists for the Hermitage Greenfield Prize in 2023, and has been granted creative residencies at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, New York Live Arts, Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies, Bethany Arts Community, Marble House Project, Kaatsbaan Culture Park, The White Oak Plantation, The Yard, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, on Captiva Island via the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and at Yaddo.
Christopher has been commissioned by Mikhail Baryshnikov, The Joyce Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York Live Arts, Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles/Opéra National de Bordeaux, English National Opera, Teatro Real/Perm Opera & Ballet Theater, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, the Harkness Dance Center and Harkness Repertory Ensemble at the 92nd Street Y, Philadelphia Dance Projects, American Opera Projects, Reid & Harriet Design, The Blanket, 10 Hairy Legs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Bates Dance Festival, and HERE Arts Center's Dream Music Puppetry Program.
Christopher has danced for Douglas Dunn + Dancers, Rebecca Lazier, Tere O'Connor Dance, Yoshiko Chuma & the School of Hard Knocks, John Kelly, Sally Silvers, & Kathy Westwater, among others, and has also performed for Peter Sellars, David Neumann, Fred Ho, and Charles Atlas. Christopher was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Syracuse, New York where he began early studies of gymnastics, drama, music, and ballet. He earned a diploma from the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris where he studied physical theatre, acrobatics, and mask traditions from 1996-1998, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1999 from Sarah Lawrence College.
Christopher is the recipient of the Sybil Shearer Fellowship for Dancemakers. He is at Ragdale with his collaborators - Jack Blackmon, Janet Charleston and Logan Pedon.