Lee Christofis has been a leading dance critic and arts commentator in Australia for more than 40 years. He is a long-time advocate for dance, has served eight years as Ausdance National Vice President and is an Honorary Life Member of Ausdance. Lee is a recipient of a Victorian Award for Excellence in Multicultural Affairs for MAMAS, the Multicultural Arts Marketing Ambassadors Strategy which he designed and delivered in conjunction with the Australia Council. After 20 years in early childhood education and welfare, Lee joined the School of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne where he taught twentieth century dance history, arts criticism and arts management. He was the Curator of Dance at the National Library of Australia from 2006 to 2013, and received an Australian Dance Award for Services to Dance in 2009. In the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours List he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the performing arts, particularly to dance.
Lee Christofis
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Articles
Why can’t the ‘English’ teach their children how to dance?
Lee Christofis talks about the different cultural and social attitudes to dancing, and how dance featured in his childhood growing up in Greek-Australian family in Brisbane.
Annette Gillen’s touching world: Lee Christofis interviews Annette Gillen
Annette Gillen (nee Dunlop) remembers performances of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in Sydney, and their direct influence on her becoming a dancer—first as a student of Helene Kirsova and then as a professional dancer in the Kirsova and Borovansky Ballets.
The Ballets Russes symposium
The Ballet Russes symposium was devoted singularly to the collaborative practice in the creation of ballets since the advent of Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russes in 1909. Curator of Dance at the National Libray of Australia, Lee Christofis gives his account of the conference.
Simon Dow’s gamble La Bohème — the ballet
Lee Christofis talks eloquently about Simon Dow's love for Puccini's opera La Bohème and the creation of the his full length ballet created for West Australian Ballet which premiered in May 2004.
Odette’s evolving nightmare—Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake
This article by dance writer and critic, Lee Christofis, draws and elaborates on the material collected by Lee in an interview with Graeme Murphy about his Swan Lake for The Australian Ballet.
Tivoli a tribute
No-one should be surprised that it was Graeme Murphy who conceived the idea of a dance musical to honour the Tivoli, the variety show that entertained audiences around the nation for over seventy years. Dance writer and critic Lee Christofis tells the story.