Graeme Murphy

Graeme Murphy AO (b. 1950), choreographer and dancer, was the co-artistic director of the Sydney Dance Company for three decades. At fourteen he was the youngest male dancer to be accepted into The Australian Ballet School in Melbourne; he commenced with The Australian Ballet three years later and choreographed his first ballet, Ecco le Diavole, in 1971. After dancing with the Royal Ballet in England and Les Ballets Félix Blaska in France, he was appointed artistic director of the Sydney Dance Company (then known as The Dance Company NSW) in 1976, helping it to become one of Australia's most successful dance companies. In 2001 Murphy was presented with a Helpmann Award for Body of Work: A Retrospective. Murphy retired from the Sydney Dance Company in 2007 after creating a repertoire of more than 50 works. Over the years he has also created productions for companies including Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, Shanghai Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Murphy continues to direct and choreograph productions, including Turandot (2019) and The Merry Widow (2021) for Opera Australia.

Lewis Morley established his reputation as one of the key British photographers of the 1960s and is known for his iconic image of a nude Christine Keeler straddling an Arne Jacobsen chair. He migrated to Sydney in 1971. This photograph was taken during Murphy's first year as artistic director of The Dance Company.

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Lewis Morley Archive LLC