Christian Tàtchev

Director of the Academy of Queensland Ballet, Christian Tàtchev, trained at the National Choreographic School in Sofia, Bulgaria.  A junior laureate of the Anastas Petrov ballet competition, he commenced his professional career at age 16, performing his first leading roles shortly after and achieving the rank of Principal Dancer at age 21.

After initial engagements with the National Opera and Ballet Sofia, Ballet Arabesque, and the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal Ballet Company (PACT Ballet), Christian relocated to Australia, joining the Queensland Ballet following a guest appearance with the Company.

With the above-mentioned organisations, Christian toured extensively and guested in various international galas, festivals and collaborations. His repertoire comprises of principal roles in the major classical ballets, as well as in numerous works by celebrated choreographers of modern times, including the Prince in The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Nutcracker, Siegfried in Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Armand in The Lady of the Camellias, the title roles in Hamlet and Zhivago, Vronsky in Anna Karenina, Oberon in The Dream, Count Danilo in The Merry Widow, Eisenstein in Rosalinda, James in La Sylphide, Escamillo in Carmen, as well as principal roles in celebrated single act works, such as Rubies, Agon, Who Cares, Ballet Imperial, Company B, Monotones, Les Patineurs, Les Sylphides and The Firebird.

His professional career as a dancer concluded in 2011, with a final performance as a member of the original cast of Nils Christie’s Short Dialogues.

Following his retirement from the stage, Christian was appointed the Company’s Ballet Master, and upon the successful completion of his business management education and dance training certifications, including a global study tour enabled by the Ian Potter Foundation, Christian transitioned to the role of Director of Training. In recognition of the instrumental role he played in the development of new training programs for the organisation, Christian was named Director of the Academy of Queensland Ballet in 2016.

Christian continues to perform with the Queensland Ballet as Character Artist, while his expertise makes him much in demand as a national and international coach and adjudicator.