Collaboration with Merce Cunningham • 1973: "Changing Steps" Atlas designed jumpsuits in various colors for the dance. • 1974: "A Video Event" Cunningham and Atlas collaborated on a two-part program for CBS Camera Three, directed by
Merrill Brockway. • 1975: "Blue Studio: Five Segments" solo-video collaboration with Cunningham created in such a small space that they choose to superimpose different backgrounds on the image, making the space seem larger than in actuality. • 1976: "Event for Television" Cunningham, Atlas and Brockway collaborated on filming National Educational Television's "Dance in America" series. • 1977 "Fractions" is a videodance showing multiple perspectives simultaneously of the same dance, one of the greatest achievements of dance on camera. • 1979: "Locale" was one of the first short films of Cunningham's work. Atlas used a Steadicam shot shifting from one group of dancers to another, cross-cutting to jump from rehearsal to performance, close-ups, and distance shots. • 1981: Channels/Inserts is a video performance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company directed and edited by Atlas. Choreography and film maker as equal partners. Lighting establishes a somber mood, creating darkness and tunnels of light. Costumes are an intelligent mixture of street and dance-practice attire.
Independent work • 1999: "Teach" is a short film made in collaboration with the late British performer
Leigh Bowery inspired by paintings of him done by
Lucian Freud • 2003: "Instant Fame!" An interactive show offering anyone the opportunity to create their own short video, which Atlas morphs using graphic magic and video technology. • 2009: Danspace Project "What Does Dance Have to Say?" was the organizing theme of this year's festival, put together by Lucy Sexton and Charles Atlas.
Live performance work • 1994 Delusional, multi-media performance/theater work; collaboration with
Marina Abramović; co-produced by
Theater am Turm (Frankfurt), Monty Theater (Antwerp), and Consort (Amsterdam) • 2003 Muscle Shoals, live video and costume design; collaboration with
Douglas Dunn (choreographer) and
Steve Lacy; performed at Théâtre de la Bastille, Paris and Danspace Project, New York • 2006:
Turning, live video performance in collaboration with
Antony and the Johnsons, St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York;
Barbican Centre, London
Media work • 1981:
Channels/Inserts, 16mm film, collaboration with Merce Cunningham. Produced by Cunningham Dance Foundation • 1983:
Secret of the Waterfall, video/dance collaboration with choreographer, Douglas Dunn and poets, Reed Bye and Anne Waldman. Commissioned by New Television Workshop, WGBH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts • 1986:
Hail the New Puritan, a "mockumentary" broadcast featuring
Michael Clark. Commissioned by Channel Four Television, London • 1991:
Son of Sam and Delilah, video feature. Produced in association with The Kitchen, New York • 1992-98:
Teach, video portrait/installation, XL Gallery, New York. Collection Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany • 1994:
Superhoney, eroto-horror video/dance collaboration with Thomas Hejlsen. Commissioned by The National Film Board of Denmark • 1997:
The Hanged One, four multi-channel video works installed at the Whitney Museum, New York • 1997-99:
The "Martha" Tapes, video collage. First shown at "Mother", New York • 2000:
Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance, documentary film, commissioned by ARTE France, BBC, WNET-TV. Acquired by the Museum of Modern Art • 2002:
The Legend of Leigh Bowery, documentary film, commissioned by ARTE France. First theatrical showing: Cinema Village, New York • 2002:
Rainer Variations, video montage. First shown as an installation at Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • 2003:
Instant Fame, installation and real-time video performance, Participant, Inc., New York ==Grants and awards==