Christopher Akrill
After training at the Northern Ballet School in Manchester and early work at the Scottish Ballet, Christopher Akrill danced in the Northern Ballet Theatre, Malmö Ballet, Hannover Ballet and Deutsche Oper Am Rhein in Dusseldorf where he worked with choreographers Gillian Lynne, Hans Van Manen, Youri Vamos, Christopher Gable, Dennis Wayne, Nanette Glushak and Oleg Vinagradov and danced lead roles including Gypsy in Carmen by Mats Ek (Dusseldorf), Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (NBT) Ebenezer Scrooge (NBT), Carabos in Sleeping Beauty (Hannover) and Mercutio and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet (Dusseldorf, Malmö).
After training at the Northern Ballet School in Manchester and early work at the Scottish Ballet, Christopher Akrill danced in the Northern Ballet Theatre, Malmö Ballet, Hannover Ballet and Deutsche Oper Am Rhein in Dusseldorf where he worked with choreographers Gillian Lynne, Hans Van Manen, Youri Vamos, Christopher Gable, Dennis Wayne, Nanette Glushak and Oleg Vinagradov and danced lead roles including Gypsy in Carmen by Mats Ek (Dusseldorf), Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (NBT) Ebenezer Scrooge (NBT), Carabos in Sleeping Beauty (Hannover) and Mercutio and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet (Dusseldorf, Malmö).In 1998 Chris joined Cullberg Ballet in Sweden. During this time he danced several leading roles, including Prince Siegfried in Mats Ek’s Swan Lake and Presenter in Alexander Ekman’s Study of Entertainment, and worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Alexander Ekman, Stijn Cellis, Johan Inger, Didy Veldman, Rui Horta and Jens Östberg.
During a 2005-08 leave of absence from Cullberg Chris worked freelance in London, performing leading roles of Captain Alving in Ibsen’s Ghosts by Cathy Marston (ROH2) and Pinocchio in Will Tuckett’s Pinocchio (ROH2) before going on to understudy and play the Emcee in Rufus Norris’s acclaimed production Cabaret, choreographed by Javier De Frutos (Lyric Theatre). Chris returned to Sweden in 2008 and in 2010, his final year at Cullberg, received two awards: The Christer Holgersons award from the Carina Ari Memorial Foundation, and the Riksteatern Award for his artistic contributions and excellence in dance.
Chris is now enjoying being based back in the UK working as a freelancer in both dance and theatre, and has since performed in The Most Incredible Thing directed by Javier De Frutos (Sadlers Wells) Dr Dee, the modern Opera directed by Rufus Norris and written by Damon Albarn (Manchester International Festival and ENO) and also played Lucky in Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Waiting for Godot’ directed by William Oldroyd in Munich, and most recently Joe Wright’s film Anna Karenina.