Charles Atlas

Best known for his acclaimed collaborations with choreographers, dancers and performers such as Michael Clark, Leigh Bowery, Diamanda Galas and John Kelly, Atlas spent ten years as film-maker in residence for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company; his feature-length film Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance won the Best Documentary Award at Dance Screen 2000 in Monaco. Recent dance-related pieces are Rainer Variations (2002), a video portrait of Yvonne Rainer, and two collaborations with Merce Cunningham: Views on Camera (2005) and Views on Video (2005).

Atlas has created several portraits of the late performance artist/fashion icon Leigh Bowery: the video installation Teach (1998), the short film Ms. Peanut Visits New York (1999), and the documentary feature The Legend of Leigh Bowery (2002).

Throughout his career Atlas has also been involved in live performance work as director and also as designer of sets, costumes, lighting and mixed media presentations, and has exhibited several large scale gallery installations works. He work has been toured and exhibited extensively across the States and Europe.

Atlas is the recipient of three ‘Bessie’ (New York Dance and Performance) Awards and was recently presented with the prestigious John Cage award, by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2006.