Dr Graeme Murphy AO

1992

CITATION

Mr Chancellor, 


Graeme Murphy, the youngest boy to enter the Australian Ballet School, enjoyed international experience in the United States, Great Britain, and France before returning to Australia in 1975 to work as a freelance choreographer prior to rejpining the Australian Ballet as a dancer and resident choreographer in 1976. In the same year he was appointed Artistic Director of Dance Company, New South Wales, shortly to become his internationally acclaimed Sydney Dance Company, for which he developed an extensive repertoire of original Australian works. His first full-length work, Poppy, in 1978 won him the Sydney Critics Circle Award for Best Director besides establishing his reputation as a choreographer. It brought together the talents of set and costume designers, composers, film-makers, puppeteers and painters, and established the pattern of commissioning Australian music and employing the collaborative efforts of other artists. 

Graeme Murphy has created, staged and produced over thirty original works for his Sydney Dance Company, including more than a dozen full-length productions, and for the Australian Ballet four short works and a full-length production of Tchaikovksy' s Nutcracker at the Sydney Opera House. In 1986 he created Vast, a national dance event inspired by Australia, its landscape and its people, whichJormed part of the World Tour during the Australian Bicentennial celebrations. He continues to combine the roles of choreographer and Artistic Director and to express himself in a wide range of dance, classical and modem. 

Mr Chancellor, for his exceptional contributions to the arts and to the Australian theatre, I present to you Mr Graeme Murphy, Member of the Order of Australia, Honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of Tasmania, for the conferral of the award of Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa to which he has been admitted by the Senate of the University.

Awards

Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa
1992