Emma Murray

Emma Murray was born in 1973 in Christchurch, New Zealand.
After having trained at the New Zealand School of Dance, Emma was awarded a scholarship to join the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company in 1993 at age 19. There she danced primarily classical repertoire and was promoted to soloist in 1996. At this time she was a recipient of the ECNZ Dancer of the Year Award, the money of which allowed her to broaden her dance education by studying in Canada and Europe.

In 1988 she was engaged to dance at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck; then in 1999, she moved to Bern to join the Bern Ballet under the direction of Felix Dumeril, and subsequent directors, Stijn Celis and Cathy Marsdon. Here she danced a wide range of works from the likes of Jiri Kylian, Stijn Celis, Jo Stromgren, Nils Christie and others as well as having her own choreography performed.

Emma left the Bern Ballet in January 2008 and has since been active freelancing as a choreographer, dancer, actress and teacher, assisting on various choreographic projects, as well as continuing to perform in theater and dance works all over Switzerland and abroad.

In September 2008 Emma premiered her own solo work, My Body is an Island, a co production with Dampfzentrale Bern, casting a dubious eye on the interaction between 'Self Help' philosophies and dance. Her second full length work, You Should Have Seen Me was also co-produced by Dampfzentrale Bern in 2010.

Today she continues to perform, teach and choreograph from Bern where she lives with her Swiss partner and 2 children.