#12: Shéhérazade (1979)

Jill Sykes AM, dance critic for The Sydney Morning Herald, reflects on Shéhérazade.

“Is it possible to pluck out a single outstanding memory from three decades of Graeme Murphy’s creativity with the Sydney Dance Company? Perhaps. And partly because of Branco Gaica’s iconic photograph from 1979 which captures that delectable moment in Shéhérazade with Murphy and Janet Vernon in the foreground, Sheree da Costa and Ross Philip behind them. Mystery. Unexplained relationships. Great beauty yet possible threats. An ambiguous context. A sense of rising physically above solid earth and spiritually out into the ether. A touch of genius mingled with everyday accessibility. And there was so much more ahead …”

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