THE INNER VIEW: Graeme Murphy
weds piano and dance in Grand

Graeme Murphy, artistic director of Australia’s Sydney Dance Company, has been in love with the piano since his mother ignited his fascination with the instrument during his childhood in rural Tasmania.

“My mother was a pianist who was incredibly instrumental in my career and in my love of music, which led to my career in dance,” says Murphy, speaking by phone from his home in Sydney.

After Betty Pitt Murphy died in 2004, the choreographer was drawn to create a work that would give the piano its due—and pay homage to the woman who gave him both life and music. The result is Grand, a masterful union of dance and piano that plays out at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 22, in Eisenhower Auditorium as part of the work’s debut tour of America.

In Grand, Australia’s greatest choreographer uses a Steinway for music and inspiration. Seventeen dancers in all, accompanied by pianist Scott Davie on stage, perform twenty-two vignettes of varying genre and mood to music by Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Gershwin, Fats Waller, Shostakovich, Villa-Lobos, and other composers.

“Grand is indeed a grand event … for the sheer beauty, joy, and invention of music, dance, and design,” writes a critic for Australia’s The Age.

“[Murphy’s] choreography for Grand reaches into new territory—sometimes building on tantalizing glimpses of earlier works, just a turn of phrase here and there, but always moving forward with fresh creativity,” notes a Sydney Morning Herald reviewer. “The exhilarating result is a smorgasbord of diverse dance vignettes, each tailored to a piece of music played on stage on the grand piano that gives the work its name. While the dance comes first, it is finely integrated with the music and design.”

“Murphy has always been masterful at arranging groups and throwing in choreographic surprises along the way, and Grand is no exception,” writes a critic for Australia’s Herald Sun. “Its swirling circular patterns and action-packed ensemble sections, heightened by Akira Isogawa’s billowing costumes, consume the stage. The cast, many of whom have danced with Murphy for years, enliven his material and punctuate it with celebratory flair. … Grand’s feel-good nature and ever-changing patterns of bodies will appeal to a wide audience.”

Sydney Dance Company’s March appearance is its first at Penn State since 1997. That November night the Aussies performed a percussion-laden work called Free Radicals that was a revelation of modern movement. This time the focus is on the king of all percussion instruments.

In Grand, which earned the 2005 Australian Dance Award for Best Choreography, the pianist and his instrument are central to everything happening on stage.

“Since day one he’s never had a piece of music. He came into the rehearsal with eighty minutes of music somehow glued into his brain,” Murphy says of pianist Davie. “He is mobile. The piano is actually not static. It interacts with the dance. It weaves in and out. It sets the mood itself. It’s a grand piano, so it’s no mean feat to get it around the stage, but we’ve managed to find a way to make it fluid and move beautifully. The dancers themselves at one point play the piano.”

Grand isn’t just about dancers performing to live piano music. The piece also delves into the essence of a piano.

“The interaction with the piano is enormous,” Murphy insists. “The set itself is derivative of the working of the piano, of that sensual S curve, of that black-lacquered look. So everything about this work, including the costumes, has been inspired by either sheet music, the internal workings of the piano, the keyboard, the colors, the black, the white, the ebony-ivory thing. Piano rolls even make an appearance.”

Selecting the music for Grand was perhaps the greatest creative challenge.

“It was a daunting task because I love piano, and I think almost every great composer has written solely for the piano. Often before they orchestrate things, it’s born on the piano,” Murphy says. “So the scope, the choice, was endless, absolutely infinite. And getting it down to something less than nine hours was a huge problem.”

The ultimate solution was sorting possibilities into categories by genre, such as impressionism, jazz, Latin, and waltz. Then, the creative team was able to more easily make the cuts down to the final musical selections.

“You’d have to say that with twenty-two disparate little pieces, it could be a bitty night in the theatre,” he observes. “But it’s not, it’s actually very cohesive.”

An aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which opens and closes Grand, became the glue that binds the evening-length work.

“The Bach really is the bookends of the piece,” Murphy notes. “We also do variations on the Goldberg Variations, and that’s the linking between many things. So the pianist will do a jazz version, leading into the Gershwin, of the Bach. The Bach was really useful from that point of view. It was really fantastic, you know, to hold the piece together.”

Grand explores a range of emotions from melancholy to joy, with lots of tenderness and humor adding depth.

“I don’t think there are many people who don’t feel the immediacy of piano, and especially live,” Murphy asserts. “Piano is one of the instruments that I don’t think records very well for some reason. It just denies technology. It defies technology. There’s something about seeing the music generated by a human being on stage, especially when surrounded by dancers at high voltage. It’s a nice combination. It’s a great combination.”

Murphy’s works are known for their heightened theatricality and diversity of forms. He has choreographed thirty full-length productions and many shorter pieces. He is noted for his extensive use of Australian music, including numerous commissioned scores. Ironically, Grand includes no music by an Australian.

In addition to creating dances for his own company, Murphy has choreographed works such as The Nutcracker and Swan Lake for The Australian Ballet. He has also choreographed many pieces for the celebrated ice dancers Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean. Since 1984, he has directed productions, including Puccini’s Turnadot and Strauss’ Salome, for Opera Australia.

Sydney Dance Company was founded in 1969 as The Dance Company New South Whales. In 1976, Murphy and Janet Vernon took over as artistic director and associate artistic director, respectively. In 1979, the company adopted its current name. Its home theatre is the internationally famous Sydney Opera House.

The company has a large repertory, much of it created by Murphy with the ever-present assistance of Vernon. Its golden international reputation began to blossom with its first run at New York’s City Center Theater in 1981. The troupe has made more than twenty international tours to Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This tour of Grand, which includes four stops in Pennsylvania, is the company’s ninth visit to the United States.

The Grand tour marks the final visit to the United States for Murphy and Vernon as the directors of Sydney Dance Company. After three decades, they have announced that this year is their last with the troupe. They could find no more fitting finale than Grand.

“Above all, this is dance wrought with love and knowledge of each company member’s character and ability,” the Sydney Morning Herald critic writes about Grand. “In turn, it is performed with the warmth, clarity, and unity of purpose that comes from the physical and emotional bonds built in an ensemble company. Murphy knows them, and they know how to make dance as he conceives it.”

Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist or local expert, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity. Seating is available on a first-arrival basis.