Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows footage of the acclaimed dancer and choreographer Graeme Murphy with Janet Vernon, who is his wife and dancing partner. Two short light-hearted choreographed scenes set to classical music are included. These are followed by an interview in which Murphy and Vernon describe their meeting and early collaboration. Dame Margaret Scott, the founding director of the Australian Ballet School gives her perspective on the young Murphy. The clip concludes with footage of Murphy and Vernon in rehearsal at their home.

Educational value points

• Graeme Murphy (1950–) grew up in Tasmania. At 14 he was the youngest person ever accepted into the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne. He joined the Australian Ballet in 1968 and then danced in Europe in the early 1970s with Les Ballets Felix Blaska before returning to Australia in the mid 1970s as a freelance choreographer. Since 1976 Murphy has been the Artistic Director of the Sydney Dance Company.

• Murphy is known for his original works, such as Poppy, Rumours and Viridian, and for collaborations with Australian composers, including Ross Edwards, Carl Vine and Graeme Koehne. He has also created works for the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia. In 1982 Murphy received a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to dance and in 2003 the Centenary Medal for his contribution to the development of dance in Australia.

• Janet Vernon has had a creative partnership with Graeme Murphy as a dancer, muse and Associate Director of the Sydney Dance Company (1976–2007) for more than 30 years. She appeared in Murphy’s first work and is an admired interpreter of his choreography. Vernon received a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1989 and the Centenary Medal in 2003 for services to dance.

• In this clip Murphy and Vernon reminisce about the anxiety Murphy initially had with partnering, particularly in a pas de deux (dance for two), because as a young teenager he was physically small and slight and some female dancers needed a strong partner. The techniques involved in partnering are complex; for example, the man has to know when his partner needs to be steadied and he has to have the physical strength to lift her into the air.

• Graeme Murphy is famous for the daring eroticism of his choreography and costumes. The sensual shower scene in this clip, with its overlay of classical ballet music, followed by the playful run, the shutting of the door with the hint of sexual possibilities, and the humorous revealing of Murphy and Vernon in a classical lift is like a choreographed scene from one of Murphy’s productions.

• The Sydney Dance Company, one of the major contemporary dance companies in Australia, has produced more than 30 full-length productions. Under Murphy and Vernon’s directorship it became known for its original, daring and often erotically confronting works. In 2006 they resigned as the company’s directors citing severe funding problems as inhibitors of their artistic endeavours. However, they have agreed to remain until a new director is appointed.

• The Australian Ballet School, where both Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon trained, was established in Melbourne in 1964 as an adjunct to the Australian Ballet (established in 1962). Dame Margaret Scott (director of the school, 1964–90) says she became aware that Graeme Murphy had found a muse the first time he choreographed Janet Vernon. Murphy has choreographed Vernon in Schéhérazade, Daphnis and Chloé and After Venice, among others.

• Dame Margaret Scott (1922–) was involved in forming the Australian Ballet in 1962. In 1964 she became founding director of the Australian Ballet School, remaining director until 1990. Scott started her career as a dancer at London’s famous Sadlers Wells Ballet and later went on to Ballet Rambert. She came to Australia on tour and stayed to dance with the National Theatre Ballet in Melbourne. In 1981 she was appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire.

This clip starts approximately 21 minutes into the documentary.

Gentle orchestral music plays over scenes of a house and surrounds in a rural setting. Fades to a scene showing two bodies showering together. The camera pulls back to reveal dancers Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon running down a corridor performing a sort of contemporary ballet, and into a bedroom.
Interviewer calls out to the couple in the room Graeme, I just wanted to ask you one question about…
Graeme Murphy Excuse me. (Shuts the door.)
Interviewer (Opens the door)...about your obsession with lifts. (The door gradually opens to reveal Graeme lifting Janet up to the ceiling.)
Graeme What obsession?

An interview in a café with choreographer Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon, Assistant Artistic Director, Sydney Dance Company. Photographs of a young Graeme are interspersed throughout the interview.
Interviewer So, how’d you first meet?
Janet At ballet school, at the Australian Ballet School, when we were about 15-16. Graeme was the new young boy.
Graeme I was the runt of the class.
Janet And, yeah. So tiny, so tiny that no-one wanted him for pas de deux because, you know, you wanted to have a good partner so you’d look good. So everyone steered clear of him.
Interviewer How’d you feel about that?
Graeme Um, I had a real thing about partnering. I was really, you know, I really did have conflicts because I was out of control. You know, the girls would start turning and I’d just be dragged in this sort of great whirlwind of movement, you know, and I’d just be whipped around the room. So it was not so good for me.
Janet And the unfortunate thing was, they thought by putting him with the biggest girls he’d probably build up his strength, which was, you know, just…
Graeme Built up this huge complex.

A separate interview in an office with Dame Margaret Scott, previous Director, The Australian Ballet School.
Dame Margaret Well, my first impression of Graeme was he was a rather skinny, small little boy from Tasmania who hadn’t had much training, and um, what was he going to be like? Well, he turned out to be just that: a skinny little boy from Tasmania with not much training, but a lot of magic. And it was not until Peggy van Praagh arranged this choreographic workshop at the Princess Theatre in which Graeme did a work and used Janet that one became aware for the first time, that he’d found a sort of muse, if you like, in, uh, Janet.

Back in the café.
Graeme It emerged that Janet emerged. I mean, I found that I was featuring her so that she actually became the central theme of that work, and consequently most works ever since. It’s quite interesting.
Janet I mean, it was the first time I’d ever been choreographed on so it was a new experience for me too, and a wonderful one. One that I’ll never forget. And I mean I still feel those things every time Graeme choreographs now.

We see Graeme and Janet in rehearsal in a beautiful beachside studio.