Politics & Power Quote by Graeme Murphy

A sentence this bland only becomes interesting once you hear the industry noise behind it. “We also tour nationally and internationally” reads like boilerplate, but coming from Graeme Murphy - a dancer and long-time force in Australian contemporary dance - it’s a quiet flex and a survival strategy rolled into one. Dance is notoriously local until it isn’t: companies can be beloved at home and still financially fragile, because applause doesn’t pay for rehearsal space, injuries, or a touring crew. Touring does.

The key word is “also.” It suggests a primary identity rooted somewhere specific - a home season, a resident audience, an artistic base - and then a second, necessary life lived on the road. Murphy’s intent likely isn’t to brag about frequent flyer miles; it’s to signal legitimacy and reach in a world that constantly asks arts organizations to justify their existence in business terms. “Nationally and internationally” functions as a stamp of seriousness, the way “peer-reviewed” does in academia or “festival circuit” does in film.

There’s subtext, too: touring is translation. It implies that the work can survive outside its cultural comfort zone, that bodies and movement can communicate when language can’t, and that the company is competitive in a global marketplace where attention is scarce and institutions love to talk about “excellence” but fund it inconsistently. The line is practical, but it carries a dancer’s unspoken truth: to keep making work, you keep moving.