Katherine Arnold-Lindley

Graeme is the recipient of an AM (1982) for his Services to Dance and three honorary doctorates – Hon. D. Lit. Tas (1990), Hon. D. Phil. Qld (1992) and Hon. D. Lit. UNSW (1999). He was honoured at the Inaugural Sydney Opera House Honours (1993) and named a National Living Treasure (1999) by the National Trust of Australia. He has received a Helpmann Award for Best Choreography, Body of Work – a Retrospective (2001); the prestigious James Cassius Award (2002);  the Green Room Award for Concept and Realisation, Swan Lake (2003); a Centenary Medal (2003); named Cultural Leader of the Year by the Australian Business Arts Foundation, receiving the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Award (2004) and was listed among Australia’s 50 Most Glamorous Exports at a special celebration hosted by the Australian Government and Austrade (2005). He received the Award for Contribution to Cultural Exchange by the Ministry of Culture, the People’s Republic of China (2008) and the Fred & Adele Astaire Award for Excellence in Choreography in Film for Mao’s Last Dancer (New York, 2011) and was made Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) from the Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).

Graeme’s directing and choreographic credits include Turandot (Opera de Montréal in 2014), Metamorphosis, Turandot, Salome, The Trojans, Aida, The Merry Widow and Madama Butterfly in 2019 (Opera Australia); Ainadamar (The Adelaide Festival of Arts); Beyond Twelve, Nutcracker: The Story of Clara, Swan Lake, Firebird, The Silver Rose, Romeo & Juliet, The Narrative of Nothing and The Happy Prince (The Australian Ballet); Tivoli (Sydney Dance Company and The Australian Ballet co-production); VAST (The Australian Bicentennial Authority); Hua Mulan (a Sydney Dance Company and Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble co-production); Die Silberne Rose (Bayerisches Staatsballett, Munich); Water (Shanghai Ballet); Forty Miles–A River of Dreams (Tasdance); The Frock and 7 Deadly Sins (MADE); Embodied (Mikhail Baryshnikov); and The Torvill and Dean World Tour Company. He also choreographed Death in Venice (Canadian Opera Company); Samson et Dalila (The Metropolitan Opera, New York); the movie Mao’s Last Dancer and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Love Never Dies . A restaged version of the second Act of Air and Other Invisible Forces by the Western Australian Ballet will open in mid 2021.

Creative Associate credits include: Swan Lake, Nutcracker-The story of Clara, Firebird, The Silver Rose, Romeo & Juliet and The Narrative of Nothing (The Australian Ballet); Tivoli (A Sydney Dance company and The Australian Ballet co-production); Hua Mulan (a Sydney Dance Company and Shanghai Song & Dance Ensemble co-production); Die Silberne Rose (Bayerisches Staatsballet, Munich); Water (Shanghai Ballet); Forty Miles–A River of Dreams (Tasdance); Ainadamar (The Adelaide Festival of Arts); Aida (Opera Australia); the movie Mao’s Last Dancer and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Love Never Dies.

Awards include: an AM for Services to Dance (1989); Sydney Opera House Honours (1993); Dance Australia named her ‘One of Australia’s Five Best Female Dancers Ever’; Green Room Award for Concept and Realisation, Swan Lake (2003); Centenary Medal for services to society and dance; Lifetime Achievement, Australian Dance Awards (2006); Green Room Award, Outstanding Contribution to Dance (2006) and the Fred & Adele Astaire Award for Excellence in Choreography in Film for Mao’s Last Dancer (New York, 2011).

The late Kristian Fredrikson (1940 – 2005) was one of Australia’s most highly regarded costume and set designers and a very close collaborator of Graeme Murphy AO and Janet Vernon AM. His award-winning designs were featured in productions for contemporary dance, ballet, opera, drama, the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, film, and television. His credits include the groundbreaking works Shéhérazade, Daphnis and Chloé, After Venice, Beauty and the Beast, King Roger, Body of Work and Tivoli (Sydney Dance Company); Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Coppélia, Swan Lake and  Nutcracker: the Story of Clara (Australian Ballet); Manon Lescaut, Lucrezia Borgia, Norma, Turandot, The Merry Widow and Salome (Opera Australia); Albert Herring (Western Australian Opera); The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Peter Pan, Coppélia and A Christmas Carol (The Royal New Zealand Ballet); Macbeth (South Australian Opera); Swan Lake and The Tales of Texas (Houston Ballet); and The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, The School for Scandal, A Doll’s House, and Hedda Gabler (Sydney Theatre Company).

See also The Kristian Fredrikson Scholarship and Michelle Potter’s Book link

Philippe Charluet is a versatile documentary producer, director and cinematographer by trade. Philippe has also dedicated a large amount of his film-making to the Arts over many decades, with a particular passion for dance. This has meant directing, producing and filming many Arts documentaries (Sleeping Beauty: Behind the Curtain and Romeo and Juliet: a New Vision [Foxtel], Arts Du Mythe: Peinture Pintupi [Arte, France], Dances of Life [PBS, US], Wild Swans: Behind the Scenes, Tivoli: the Making of a Dance Musical and Old Friends, New Friends [ABC], Alicia, Love & Devotion, The Medieval Imagination and Bill Henson: Dreams of Darkness [SBS], etc…), magazine style programs (Art21: Series 5 [PBS], Artzone series [ABC Education], Imagine Series and Imagine Japan Special [SBS]…) and adapting a multitude of dance performances for television (Ever After Ever, Tivoli, Air & Other Invisible Forces, Hydra, Synergy with Synergy, Poppy, Viridian, etc…). Brilliant dance works have been filmed over the years, created by many acclaimed choreographers (Graeme Murphy AO, Stephen Page, Stephen Petronio, Rafael Bonachela, Ohad Naharin, Ralph Lemon, Louis Falco, to name a few…) and films made to integrate various  stage works and exhibitions (The Australian Ballet, State Library of Victoria, Opera Australia, Sydney Dance Company, Powerhouse Museums, etc…)

First and foremost, Philippe’s love and dedication has been filming, in so many different ways, Graeme Murphy’s and Janet Vernon’s incredible body of work, almost from its humble beginning to the present day, for which he has been the recipient of various Gold and Silver Awards – US International Film & Video Festival and the Australian Cinematographers Society – and the Australian Dance Awards 2019 for Services to Dance. The Heritage Collection’s website, which Philippe created and curates, aims at telling the story of this incredible cultural period and rich Australian artistry, almost as an interactive documentary, and in doing so, opening a precious window to this extraordinary community of artists.

Link to Philippe’s company: Stella Motion Pictures

Videos Tab above: showcasing Graeme Murphy’s Sydney Dance Company work

In 1975 he was appointed artistic director of the Queensland Ballet and from 1981 to 1992, was artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. In 1993 he was awarded an MBE for his services to dance. Hawthorne continued to perform character roles in Australia in Stanton Welch’s Cinderella, Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow and Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker: the Story of Clara, Tivoli and Swan Lake.

A most memorable performance was his roller skating solo in Tivoli as shown in the featured video. (text edited from Valerie Lawson, dancelines.com.au)

Article 1         Article 2         Article 3       Harry Haythorne Fund

Video Tab above: 1) Photo Tribute (as screened at his farewell party)

2) ‘The History of Swan Lake’, featuring Harry

It was the creation of the set for Graeme Murphy’s Air and Other Invisible Forces in 1999 that marked a turning point in both Gerard Manion’s style and his career. Embarking on new design projects in subsequent years, Gerard has further refined his design style, reducing th

e visual effects to his signature line work. In 2002, Gerard designed the set for Graeme Murphy’s Ellipse for Sydney Dance Company. The production gained rave reviews and earned him a Green Room Award Nomination for Best Design.

In 2005, he was invited to design Graeme Murphy’s GRAND, reuniting with collaborators Murphy (choreography) and Akira Isogawa (costumes) in what was their third project together.

Sydney Dance Company has since taken Air and Other Invisible Forces, GRAND and Ellipse on extensive tours in Australia, Europe and the United States, where Gerard’s work has received high praise.

In 2007, Gerard completed his fourth set design for Sydney Dance Company with the revitalised new staging of Graeme Murphy’s Berlin for seasons in Sydney and Brisbane. This historic occasion marked the last major season produced by Graeme Murphy with the Sydney Dance Company. In 2008 Gerard was again commissioned to design the sets for Azsure Bartons’ first Australian production Sids Waltzing Masquerade.

Gerard has also produced the Romeo & Juliet‘s sets for The Australian Ballet.