The Sydney Dance Company is one of Australia's most successful and well-known contemporary dance companies. The company was founded in 1969 as the dance-in-education group Ballet in a Nutshell by Suzanne Musitz (Davidson), later changing its name to Athletes and Dancers, and Dance Company (NSW). In 1979 the company was renamed the Sydney Dance Company by its new artistic director Graeme Murphy, who had joined the Dance Company (NSW) in 1976.
The success of Murphy's tenure as artistic director, with fellow dancer, collaborator and wife Janet Vernon, 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 (1983), 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.
Current Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela’s first commissioned work for the Company, 360°, was as a guest choreographer with the Company. Following his appointment in 2009 as Artistic Director he has premiered his new works we unfold (2009), 6 Breaths (2010), LANDforms (2011) and 2 One Another (2012); presented Australian premieres of his previous works Irony of Fate, Soledad, and The Land of Yes & The Land of No; and new commissions from guest choreographers Kenneth Kvarnstrom (Mercury 2009); Adam Linder (Are We That We Are 2010); Emanuel Gat (Satisfying Musical Moments 2010); and Jacopo Godani (Raw Models 2011).
Since Rafael Bonachela’s appointment, the company has toured around Australia and to Venice, Beijing, Germany, New York, Barcelona and London.
Read more about Sydney Dance Company: History, Dancers and Choreographers
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