Mark Murphy is a choreographer, director and theater director. He was both the founder and the artistic director of the V-TOL Dance Company and his project OOTW.
Mark’s Life
At the age of 15, a student at the Walton Comprehensive School in Peterborough, he loved sports and the visual arts, and when he later realized he felt that the key to the creative potential of these two passions lies: the fusion of physical and visual. “I noticed that this physical side with the aesthetic and creative side of my brain is somehow creating a future in dance.” The movement switched to dance through the school’s inspiring art department, where its creative interest in painting and sculpture was encouraged. Here he has been featured in many performances and workshops by experimental companies such as Laurie Booth, Philip Jeck, Julyen Hamilton, Katie Duck’s Group O and Extensive Dance Theater.
Mark then took a formal dance class at the Laban Center, where he continued to develop his own work, “… when I started dancing, I did it all over again, if I didn’t see the point in doing it., I wasn’t going either. creating a job … “. After graduation, she joined a collaborative project with other alumni from The Laban Center for the Edinburgh Festival, then collaborated with dancer and choreographer Sue Cox to create Two Falling Too Far. In 1990 this earned them the London Dance and Performance Award for Most Promising Beginners. The press called Murphy “an emerging talent of great importance”. “Mark Murphy’s moves have performed well and his presence is on the spots. Male dancers do really well when they do it well.”
V-TOL foundation
In 1991 Mark founded the V-TOL Dance Company and created Crash and Burn for his first performance at the Place Theater as part of the company’s first dance workshop in Europe. He went on to create seven works for V-TOL on tour both in this country and in Europe: Time Spent at the Company (1991), Headshot (1992), 32 feet per second (32 feet per second (1993), In Privacy of My Own (1995) By Force of Fantasy (1996), ….. and nothing but the truth … (1998) and Trackless (1999). Fares for other companies include Point Blank (National Youth Dance Theater); Routine requests (Mayfest 92); Blind Date (Transitions Dance Company); Skintight (Dance Productions, Edinburgh). In 1997 he was movement director in Caryl Churchill’s Blue Heart production Out of Joint at the Royal Court Theater.
Murphy was invited as a choreographer for the Northern Stage Ensemble’s acclaimed production of A Clockwork Orange in 1995. This marked the beginning of a long relationship with Northern Stage and art director Alan Lyddiard. He then returned as assistant director and director for the new production of A Clockwork Orange, which toured the country. Mark teamed up with Alan Lyddiard again in 2001 and also co-directed 1984, a Moscow production where he shot and directed a film.
In 1994 he won a British New Choreography Award from the Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund, followed by the Wingate Fellowship Award, which allowed him to continue his film studies at the New York Film Academy. He later directed the V-TOL dance film Where Angels Fear to Tread and choreographed The Snowball Effect, a dance film for the Arts Council / BBC 2 Dance series for the Camera 4 series, Mark shot, directed and installed everything. Film integrated into the live productions of V-TOL.
Murphy has extensive teaching experience and is responsible for developing V-TOL’s teaching philosophy and acclaimed curriculum over the years. As part of the V-TOL’s educational program, he led three major location-based waterfront demonstrations designed by residences: Where Angels Fear to Tread in a Gothic Church in London (1995), Castle Blanca, Suffolk (1997) Running Scared in London Docklands (1998)). He also taught two intensive courses for professional dance and film performers, one in Luxembourg in 1995 and the other in 1997 at the Cambridge Festival Theater.