Christopher Roman began his formal training and danced as an
apprentice with The School of Cleveland Ballet continuing his training at
The School of American Ballet in New York City. He was subsequently
invited into the ranks of the Pacific Northwest Ballet and as a soloist and
principal with Edward Villella's Miami City Ballet, Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens, de Montréal, The Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt and
The Forsythe Company, performing a prolific and diverse array of
important choreographic works, originating over forty roles and touring
extensively worldwide. He has been a guest artist with Complexions
Contemporary Ballet and Sasha Waltz and Guests in Berlin. Christopher
was co-founder, choreographer and performer for the company 2+ with
former Wooster Group video designer Philip Bussmann. William
Forsythe’s Bessie Award winning »You Made Me a Monster« was
created with Mr. Roman, and he is the 2009 recipient of Germany's
highest theater honor Der Deutsche Theaterpreis DER FAUST for Best
Performance: Dance in The Forsythe Company's, »I don't believe in
outer space«. He is also featured in the Thierry De Mey film of
Forsythe's work, »One Flat Thing, reproduced«. As a ballet master,
choreographic assistant and administrator Christopher has staged and
assisted the works of William Forsythe internationally, been a teacher of
improvisational techniques, a research collaborator for the Ohio State
University project Synchronous Objects and the Score Manager and
Education Coordinator for the Motion Bank initiative in association with
The Forsythe Company. He was the curator and organizer for the MFA in
Dance, European Study Program at Hollins University from 2011-2020.
Since 2011 Christopher has been guest and adjunct faculty and
choreographer in residence for Butler University, The Juilliard School,
Hollins University, Princeton University, The Palucca Schule, Harvard
University, The Goethe Institute worldwide, NYU Tisch School of the
Arts, Springboard Dance Montreal among others. Mr. Roman was one of
the artists selected to be part of the final Solo Performance
Commissioning Project with Deborah Hay for her work »Dynamic« and
as one of the twenty artists to perform in Boris Charmatz’s curation of
»20 Dancers for the XX Century« at MoMA. In September 2013,
Christopher assumed the role of Associate Artistic Director of The
Forsythe Company and was on the Board of Trustees for the Forsythe
Foundation. In 2015, Christopher became the Artistic Director and
Dance Artist with the DANCE ON Ensemble, based in Berlin. Together
with the ensemble, he helped create 11 original works with Matteo
Fargion, Rabih Mroué, William Forsythe, Kat Valastur, Deborah Hay, Ivo
Dimchev, Johannes Wieland, Jan Martens and Ersan Mondtag and the
Berliner Ensemble. In recent years he has toured a new evening created
with William Forsythe for Sadler’s Wells entitled »A Quiet Evening of
Dance« and collaborated with Deborah Hay as dancer and producer of
her work Animals on the Beach which premiered at Tanz im August in
Berlin as part of her “Re-Perspective”. In 2022 Christopher directed and
co-choregraphed the world premiere of the opera »Mexico Aura« with
the Neuköllner Oper at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. In 2024 he was
awarded his PhD from Roehampton University in London between the
Departments of Dance and Drama, Theatre and Performance.
