V-Tol: Marc Murphy - Interview
Marc Murphy is the young artistic director of an up-and coming dance company, V-Tol. The company has been around for just six years, but has already enjoyed considerable success, touring not only in Britain but also abroad. They are even hoping to take their current production ‘By Force of Fantasy’ to Brazil.
Tucked away in the corner of a tea-shop, Marc Murphy comes across as a shy person, embarrassed to be interviewed by two students.
He was a late-comer to dance, not starting until he was fourteen. You would expect that as a teenager taking up dancing he would have suffered at school. It turns out that the reverse is true: Marc received considerable support from his teachers as well as his friends.
Creativity comes first every time; technique, although important, takes second place. Marc Murphy is emphatically not of the classical world. Its strict and stylised rules frustrate him. His style of dancing is raw, athletic. All forms of media, from films to voice-overs, are equally important. An unexpected consequence is that in other countries the performance acquires a slightly different meaning in translation. The troupe regards this as enriching though and actively encourages it.
Ultimately, Marc Murphy is obsessed with ‘the neglected power of fantasy.’ His source of inspiration are people and their secret lives; each dance tells a story about people. The common thread running through the dances is sex, ironic sex and dark secrets. One scene tells of the courtship between two men, ending with one inviting the other to meet his wife.
Marc spends a long time developing his ideas, insisting that he has broken out of the traditional mold. I have however heard many artists say that their obsession with sex is new and original.
The photographs I saw remind me compellingly of Stravinsky’s Firebird. It should be well worth seeing V-Tol in case this turns out to be the case. .. ..Emm
