Graham Murphy

Graeme Lloyd Murphy AO (born 2 November 1950) is an Australian dance choreographer. Together with his fellow dancer (and wife since 2004) Janet Vernon, he guided Sydney Dance Company to become one of Australia's most successful and best-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). Ecco was presented at Melbourne's Princess Theatre in July 1971. The piece was set to music by Nino Rota and featured dancers Roslyn Anderson, Roma Egan, Janet Vernon, and Wendy Walker.

Later, Murphy 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, renamed as Sydney Dance Company in 1979.

Murphy has been compared to the dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins on account of the way he and his company marketed dance to a wider audience, bringing contemporary dance into a more commercial arena. Aside from his work in ballet, Murphy has also completed choreography for Torville and Dean.

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