Graeme Murphy

Graeme Murphy (born 2 November 1950) is regarded as one of Australia's best dance choreographers. Together with his wife, the fellow dancer Janet Vernon, he has guided Sydney Dance Company to become one of Australia's most successful and well-known dance companies.

Murphy was born in Melbourne, and grew up in Tasmania, where he took dance classes with Kenneth Gillespie in Launceston. He began his career as a student at the Australian Ballet School at the age of fourteen. In 1968 he became a dancer with the Australian Ballet where he had opportunities to choreograph. He toured America with the Australian Ballet in 1970-1971 and created his first ballet, "Ecco le Diavole" (Ecco), to music by Nino Rota, for a choreographic workshop in 1971. The work was presented by the Australian Ballet Society at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne in July of that year. He later danced with the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet (now Birmingham Royal Ballet), and Les Ballets Félix Blaska in France. In 1975 he worked as a freelance choreographer. He rejoined the Australian Ballet in the early months of 1976 as both a dancer and as a resident choreographer. He was appointed as Artistic Director of the Dance Company of New South Wales in November 1976 (in 1979 this company became the Sydney Dance Company).

Murphy has been compared to the dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins because of the way he and his company have marketed dance to a wider audience, and brought contemporary dance into a more commercial arena.

Choreographies include (in rough chronological order) "Ecco", "Poppy", "Boxes", "After Venice", "Daphnis and Chloe", "Shining", "Nearly Beloved", "Beyond Twelve", "The Nutcracker" (for the Australian Ballet), "Synergy", "Beauty and the Beast", "Free Radicals", "Air and other Invisible forces", "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker" (for the Australian Ballet), "Ellipse", and "Turandot" (for Opera Australia).

Personal life

In July 2004, he was forced to deny that he is gay, after being "outed" by Rodney Croome. Croome immediately withdrew his claim and publicly apologised. [ [http://www.rodneycroome.id.au/weblog?id=C10_23_1 Croome's blog - "Stirring up a gay row: Always triple check"] ]

On 18 December 2004, after almost 40 years together as artistic and life partners, he and Janet Vernon married on their rural property outside Launceston. [Jane Albert, "Couple to wed... after dancing around it for 40 years", Weekend Australian, 18-19 December 2004]

References

External links

* [http://www.australiadancing.org/subjects/47.html Profile on Graeme Murphy at Australia Dancing]