Until recently Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director respectively of the Sydney Dance Company, Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon have been a major force in contemporary dancing in Australia for the past three decades.

Previously with the Australian Ballet, Graeme took on the directorship of the Dance Company (NSW) at the end of 1976, changed the company’s name to Sydney Dance Company in 1979 and went on to develop it as a major choreographer-led contemporary dance company. With his Associate Director Janet Vernon, Graeme also nurtured the work of other Australian choreographers, including dancers from within his own company. Choreographers whose early works have been mentored by Graeme included Paul Mercurio, Gideon Obarzanek and Stephen Page.

As well as having to his credit a substantial body of work created on his own company, Graeme has choreographed for a range of other dance and opera companies including the Australian Ballet, the Australian Ballet School, the Canadian Opera Company, Nederlands Dans Theater, Opera Australia, the Queensland Ballet and White Oak Dance Project.

Graeme received Australian Dance Awards for outstanding achievement in choreography for Tivoli in 2001 and Swan Lake in 2003 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2006, the year in which both he and Janet Vernon resigned from Sydney Dance Company, they were joint recipients of the award for lifetime achievement.