STATE COLLEGE – Sydney Dance Company performs Grand, a marriage of dance and piano, at 7:30 p.m. March 22 in Eisenhower Auditorium as part of the first American tour of this evening length work. Australia’s greatest choreographer Graeme Murphy uses a Steinway for music and inspiration. Seventeen dancers in all, accompanied by pianist Scott Davie on stage, perform 22 vignettes of varying genre and mood to music by Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Waller, and other composers.
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts presentation are $33 for an adult, $15 for a University Park student and $24 for a person 18 and younger. For tickets and information, visit the online ticket center or phone 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at Eisenhower Auditorium and Bryce Jordan Center, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; Penn State Tickets Downtown, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; and HUB-Robeson Center, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays when Penn State classes are in session. University Park Allocation Committee makes Penn State student prices possible.
“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 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.”
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 80 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.”
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 30 full-length productions and many shorter pieces.
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 theater 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 20 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.