Sydney Dance Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sydney Dance Company is one of Australia's most successful and well-known contemporary dance companies. It was formed by Graeme Murphy and fellow dancer and collaborator Janet Vernon 1976. Murphy has been compared to the dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins because of the way he and his company has marketed dance to a wider audience, and brought contemporary dance into a more commercial arena.

Part of Murphy's success has been his wide-ranging taste in music and the eclectic choices of musical accompaniment he has made for his dance works. The breakthrough work Some Rooms, which received enormous acclaim, featured a selection of existing music by composers Keith Jarrett, Joseph Canteloube, Francis Poulenc, Benjamin Britten and Samuel Barber, whereas other works featured newly-commissioned original music. Hate (1982) had a score by noted Australian composer Carl Vine, and his successful 1985 production Boxes featured original music by composer and musician Iva Davies, who was then the lead singer with popular Australian rock band Icehouse.

[edit] Dancers and choreographers

Sydney Dance Company has launched the careers of several highly successful Australian dancers and choreographers, including

Gideon Obarzanek, now director of Melbourne dance company Chunky Move
Paul Mercurio who has gone on to make several movies including Strictly Ballroom which was directed by Baz Luhrmann.
Stephen Page, now choreographer and director of Bangarra Dance Theatre