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| Formerly |
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| Founded | 1969 |
| Founder | Suzanne Musitz |
| Headquarters | Australia |
Sydney Dance Company is a contemporary dance company in Australia. They have performed at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Joyce Theater in New York, the Shanghai Grand Theatre in China, and the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow. [1]
Sydney Dance 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). [2]
From 1975 to 1976, the company was led by Dutch choreographer Jaap Flier and later by Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy in 1976. In 1979, Graeme Murphy and his wife, Janet Vernon, also a dancer, renamed the company as Sydney Dance Company and served as artistic directors for three decades. [2] During their tenure, the company became the first Western contemporary dance company to perform in the People's Republic of China. [3]
Company productions have incorporated works from notable musicians. The production Some Rooms (1983) featured a selection of existing music by composers such as Keith Jarrett, Francis Poulenc, Benjamin Britten, and Samuel Barber. Hate (1982) featured a score by the Australian composer Carl Vine, and the 1985 production Boxes included original music by composer and musician Iva Davies.[ citation needed ]
In May 2007, the company announced that Tanja Liedtke as its new artistic director; [4] however on 17 August of that year Liedtke was killed in a traffic accident in the northern suburbs of Sydney. [5]
In December 2007, Executive Director Noel Staunton launched the company's 2008 season, announcing three guest choreographers, Meryl Tankard, Rafael Bonachela and Aszure Barton, to create new works for the company. [6] Bonachela was subsequently appointed the Company's new Artistic Director. [2]
In December 2008, Foxtel signed a three-year sponsorship of the company involving special broadcasts and incorporating the company into subscription television programs Australia's Next Top Model and Project Runway Australia . [7]
In 2009, Anne Dunn was appointed Executive Director of the Company. [8]
Rafael Bonachela has been the artistic director of the company since 2009. [9] His first commissioned work for the company, 360°, was as a guest choreographer. His works include unfold (2009), 6 Breaths (2010), LANDforms (2011) and 2 One Another (2012), Irony of Fate, Soledad, and The Land of Yes & The Land of No. He has worked with 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). Other guest choreographers include Alexander Ekman and Gideon Obarzanek, as well as collaborations with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and with composers 48nord and Ezio Bosso.[ citation needed ]
In 2014, the company announced it was granted permission to perform William Forsythe's 1993 work Quintett. [10] The work is set to Gavin Bryars' Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet.
The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognised achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Sydney Dance Company won two awards in that time. [11]
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result (wins only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Sydney Dance Company | Dance Performance of the Year | Won |
| 1990 | Sydney Dance Company - King Roger | Dance Performance of the Year | Won |
Graeme Lloyd Murphy AO is an Australian dancer and choreographer. With his fellow dancer Janet Vernon, he guided Sydney Dance Company to become one of Australia's most successful and best-known dance companies.
Paul Joseph Mercurio is an Australian actor, choreographer, dancer, TV presenter and politician. Mercurio is best known for his lead role in the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom and his role as a judge on TV series Dancing with the Stars.
The Australian Ballet (TAB) is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and director Dame Peggy van Praagh as founding artistic director. Today, it is recognised as one of the world's major international ballet companies and performs upwards of 150 performances a year.
Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company focused on contemporary dance. It was founded by African American dancer and choreographer Carole Y. Johnson, Gumbaynggirr man Rob Bryant, and South African-born Cheryl Stone. Stephen Page was artistic director from 1991 to 2021, with Frances Rings taking over in 2022.
David Graeme McAllister is the former artistic director and principal dancer of The Australian Ballet.
Stephen George Page is an Australian choreographer, film director and former dancer. He is the former artistic director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, an Indigenous Australian dance company.
Dame Catherine Margaret Mary Scott, was a South African-born pioneering ballet dancer who found fame as a teacher, choreographer, and school administrator in Australia. As the first director of the Australian Ballet School, she is recognised as one of the founders of the strong ballet tradition of her adopted country.
Graeme John Koehne, is an Australian composer and music educator. He is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of tertian harmony. His orchestral trilogy Unchained Melody, Powerhouse, and Elevator Music makes allusions to Hollywood film score traditions, cartoon music, popular Latin music and other dance forms.
West Australian Ballet is the State ballet company of Western Australia and is based in Perth, at the Western Australian Ballet Centre in Maylands.
Boxes is a soundtrack credited to Sydney Dance Company with Iva Davies, released by Festival Records / Chrysalis Records in November 1985. The work was originally conceived by its composers, Iva Davies and Robert Kretschmer, in collaboration with choreographer Graeme Murphy of the Sydney Dance Company for performance as the ballet Boxes. The first live performance of Boxes was given by the Sydney Dance Company together with Davies and Kretschmer of Icehouse and guest percussionist Masaki Tanazawa in the Opera Theatre of the Sydney Opera House on 7 November 1985.
Tanja Michaela Karin Liedtke was a German-born professional choreographer and dancer. She was most noted as a dancer, choreographer and director of contemporary dance in Australia and Europe.
Kate Champion is an Australian choreographer and artistic director.
Garth de Burgh Welch is an Australian dancer and choreographer.
Gideon Obarzanek is an Australian choreographer, director, and performing arts curator, and founder of the dance company Chunky Move.
The Tanja Liedtke Foundation is a German-based charity supporting modern and contemporary dance.
STUDIO was a subscription television arts channel available in Australia on the Foxtel and Austar platforms.
Blank Canvas is a 2009 documentary film about the creation of 'We Unfold', a contemporary dance work. The film was directed by Tim Slade and features Spanish-born choreographer Rafael Bonachela and the Sydney Dance Company.
Lucy Mary Guerin is an Australian dancer and choreographer. Her work is described as post-modern.
Rafael Bonachela is a Spanish-born, Australian choreographer notable for work across a range of art forms, including contemporary dance, art installations, pop concerts, musicals, film, commercials and fashion. He is recognised for his physical movement style of contemporary dance based on communicating emotions through the human form. Since 2009 he has been Artistic Director of the Sydney Dance Company in Walsh Bay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Sarah-Jayne Howard is a South African-born New Zealand dancer and choreographer.
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