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GRAEME MURPHY AM
Artistic Director / Choreographer
Choreographer Graeme Murphy was appointed Artistic Director to Sydney Dance Company (then known as The Dance Company N.S.W.) in 1976. He has since created a remarkable repertoire, including thirty full evening productions and a diverse range of short works. His body of work reflects a discerning interest in music from a variety of 20th Century composers. Yet Graeme Murphy remains particularly noted for his work with Australian music, including many commissioned scores. Australian composers who have inspired Murphy include Max Lambert (Deadly Sins, Berlin), Michael Askill (Free Radicals, Salome, Air and other invisible forces) and Carl Vine (Tip, Poppy, Piano Sonata, Beauty and the Beast, Mythologia).
Additionally, he has created new works for The Australian Ballet, most recently Tivoli – a joint production with Sydney Dance Company. He has also choreographed for Nederlands Dans Theatre, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and a solo work for Mikhail Baryshnikov. He has choreographed for the Canadian Opera Company and most recently for The Metropolitan Opera, New York. He has also choreographed for the skaters Torvill and Dean, creating their World Tour Company’s production and the TV Special Fire and Ice.
In 1988 he was commissioned by the Australian Bicentennial Authority to create a national dance event VAST - involving seventy dancers from four disparate dance companies - Australian Dance Theatre, The West Australian Ballet, The Queensland Ballet and Sydney Dance Company.
He began directing for Opera Australia in 1984 with Brian Howard’s Metamorphosis, subsequently directing an acclaimed production of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot, followed by Richard Strauss' Salome and Hector Berlioz’ The Trojans, the latter bringing Opera Australia together with Sydney Dance Company in a lavish spectacle.
Side by side with Associate Director Janet Vernon, Graeme Murphy has led Sydney Dance Company on more than twenty international tours to Asia, Europe, South America and the United States including the 2000 US Tour, which culminated in the Company’s fifth New York season, and most recently the 2001 Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico.
In 2000, Graeme Murphy celebrated the new century with a retrospective season at the Sydney Opera House, opening with Gala Performance followed by Body of Work – A Retrospective, a production that ingeniously recalled the best of Murphy in a series of judiciously selected excerpts from repertoire
In 2001 he created Tivoli – a dance musical that paid tribute to the history of the Tivoli theatres in Australia, created for the occasion of the Centenary of Federation. Tivoli won four Australian Dance Awards including Outstanding Achievement in Choreography.
Graeme Murphy was presented with an AM for services to dance in 1982. He is the recipient of three honorary doctorates – Hon. D Litt Tas (1990), Hon. D Phil Qld (1992), Hon. D Litt UNSW (1999). He was honoured, along with Janet Vernon, at the Inaugural Sydney Opera House Honours in 1998 and has been named by the National Trust of Australia as a National Living Treasure in 1999. In 2001, he won the Helpmann Award for Best Choreography for Body of Work, Gala Performance.
JANET VERNON AM
Associate Artistic Director
Adelaide born Janet Vernon has danced with The Australian Ballet, Ballets Felix Blaska in France and Sydney Dance Company. In 1976 she was appointed, along with Graeme Murphy, to the artistic helm of The Dance Company (N.S.W.), later changed to Sydney Dance Company.
At that time, Janet had already danced in works created by Graeme Murphy, including Ecco Le Diavole and Glimpses for The Australian Ballet. Once at Sydney Dance Company, her artistry as a performer was destined to become inextricably linked to his remarkable choreographic achievements over a quarter of a century.
At Sydney Dance Company Graeme and Janet set about shaping a repertoire of genuine originality and a company built on strong technical standards. In the early years they frequently danced together in a now legendary partnership. Later, Janet formed new dance partnerships with Ross Philip, Kim Walker, Paul Mercurio, Kelvin Coe and Carl Plaisted.
In May, 2000, Janet Vernon and Graeme Murphy danced together at a Gala Performance heralding the acclaimed season of Body of Work – a Retrospective. Additionally, in preparation for this event, Janet Vernon undertook much of its planning. She compiled and edited Graeme Murphy’s choreography from a broad range of works into one seamless performance, destined for Australia wide success. In fact, the Gala Performance and Body of Work are now recognised not just as a unique showcase of Murphy’s prolific choreographic career but as a celebration of Janet and Graeme’s achievements at Sydney Dance Company.
In her extraordinary career, Janet has danced with Sydney Dance Company throughout the world. In addition to the demands of her role as Associate Artistic Director, Janet also works closely with Graeme Murphy in the creation of every new work.
Her outstanding roles have included those in Shéhérazade, Homelands, Daphnis and Chloé, Some Rooms (The Bathroom), After Venice, Nearly Beloved, Kraanerg, as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, as Queen Roxana in King Roger, The Protecting Veil, Fornicon, Berlin, Sensing (a dance-film created by Murphy for ABC-TV), as Andromeque in The Trojans, and as Herodias in Salome.
In 1989 she was awarded an AM for services to dance. In 1993, she was honoured at the Inaugural Sydney Opera House Honours, acknowledging twenty years of superlative performers at the House. In 1996, Janet Vernon was named in Dance Australia magazine's Dance Greats Survey as one of Australia's five greatest ever female dancers, alongside Marilyn Jones, Marilyn Rowe, Kathleen Gorham and Lucette Aldous.
ROBERT COUSINS
Set Designer
Robert has designed for State Theatre Company of South Australia the sets and costumes for House Among the Stars, The Merchant of Venice and Drowning in My Ocean of You.
Robert also designed the sets for the original production of Company B Belvoir’s Cloudstreet for the 1998 Sydney and Perth Festivals and the 1991 and 2001 national and international tours, including seasons at the Zuercher Theater Spektakel, Riverside Studios (London), Dublin Festival, National Theatre (London) and the New Wave Festival (New York). Robert has also designed sets for Company B productions of As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Aliwa, the Sydney Festival production of Waiting for Godot, and most recently The Threepenny Opera. Other productions include the opera The Eternity Man as part of the Genesis project for the Almeida Theatre in London, The Dreamed Life for Comeout01 and Worry Warts for Monkey Baa Theatre Company. He has also worked as a designer on the 2002 and 2003 Adelaide Cabaret Festivals.
PAUL HEALY
Music Director & Sound Design
Paul Healy is a composer and sound-designer working at Supersonic in Sydney. Supersonic is a music production house combining the talents of three composers of whom Paul is one.
Paul completed a BA in Sound at the Australian Film Television & Radio School in 1994 and during his studies spent 1993 in Paris at the Ecole National Louis Lumiere. Paul's feature film work has included Dirty Deeds, Mullet, Kabarrli and Idiot Box. His work for television includes Always Greener, The Mad Century, Eat Carpet, Alchemy, Men and their Sheds as well as numerous commercials. He has worked extensively in theatre in both Sydney and Melbourne with directors such as Barrie Kosky, Wayne Harrison, Neil Armfield and Marion Potts.
In 2002 he composed the music for a Barrie Kosky production of Macbeth at the Schauspielhaus in Vienna. In 2001 Paul's compositions were performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra in collaboration with Neil Finn and Brett Dean on the 'Parables' tour of Australia. Paul has composed for Bonehead by Chunky Move Dance Company as well as several performances of works by Dance Exchange. His surround sound installation works have been presented at several galleries including the Queensland National Gallery.
His recent work in dance has included collaboration with the Sydney Dance Company and New York choreographer Stephen Petronio for Underland and with Lucy Geurin's work Plastercine Park for the Melbourne Festival.
Recordings of his compositions are featured on several CD’s including Coco, Dirty Deeds, Soft Fruit and Mullet soundtracks and Escape. The awards he has received include two Golden Reel nominations in the USA, the Sound Design Award and Best Music in a Short Film from the Australian Guild of Screen Composers, and two AFI nominations.
DAMIEN COOPER
Lighting Design
Damien graduated from the NIDA Technical Production Course in 1996. Since then Damien has worked extensively lighting dance, theatre and opera. This year Damien received a Mike Walsh fellowship, which enabled him to travel to America and work with Robert Wilson. Damien’s lighting design for the theatre includes Morph, The Shape of Things, These People (Sydney Theatre Company ): Ten Unknowns, Old Times (The Ensemble Theatre ); Underpants, The Cosmonauts Last Message to the Women he Loved in the Former Soviet Union, The Ham Funeral (Company B, Belvoir St Theatre); Theft of Sita (Performing Lines) which toured to UK and Europe; King Lear (Sydney Theatre Company); The Happy Prince, Gypsy Boy, Hansel and Gretel, Exotic Pleasures (Theatre of Image); Sonket, What a Piece of Work, Monkey Trap, (Griffin Theatre Company) and Kinderspiel and Skate (Australian Theatre for Young People); Universal Playground (Adelaide Festival 2004).
Damien has lit many productions for the choreographer Graeme Murphy. These include Swan Lake (Australian Ballet), Tivoli (Australian Ballet/ Sydney Dance Co), Ellipse, Air and Other Invisible Forces (which received a Green Room nomination for best lighting design); Body of Work and Mythologia (Sydney Dance Company);
He has also lit numerous productions for Garry Stewart for Australian Dance Theatre. These include The Age of Unbeauty, Plastic Space, Birdbrain, Attention Deficit Theory (Australian Dance Theatre); Spectre in the Covert Memory, Corrupted 1 + 2, Fleshmeet, Bodyparts (Chunkymove); Heavy, Remote (Lucy Guerin Dancers); Under the Influence, Homelands (Legs on the Wall) which performed in Berlin and at the Commonwealth Games, Manchester; Skipping on Stars, The Gift and Fusion (Flying Fruit Fly Circus). Many of Damien’s designs for these companies have travelled throughout Australia, Asia, America and Europe.
Damien’s musical credits include Frank the Sinatra Story In Song (Tom Burlinson) which has toured nationally and recently toured to Canada; Womad 2000; 1988-2000 Sydney Festival (Taikoz); Taraf de Haidouks (Sydney Festival 2004); The Beat it Concerts 1998 –2000, Steve Reich’s Drumming (Synergy Percussion); The Revolution will not be Televised (Revolutionary Productions); and Red Square which featured the Whirling Dervishes from Turkey, The Bauls of Bengal, The Throat Singers of Tuva, Tito Puente, Pablo Percusso, and the Dragon Drummers of Japan (Barrie Kosky’s 1996 Adelaide Festival). Damien’s designs for opera credits include Penelope (Opera UNSW) and Grandma’s Shoes (Theatre of Image in association with Opera Australia).
Damien also lectures in Lighting Design and tutors at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.
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