Dance furore over funding shortfall

Husband and wife team Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon are quitting the Sydney Dance Company after 30 years, frustrated by a funding shortfall that is choking creativity.

The high-profile artistic directors will leave the company on April 1 next year at the end of its tour of the United States. The decision to resign has been hastened by their frustration at the prolonged battle to secure adequate funding for the company Murphy founded in 1976.

"Having seen dance blossom in the past 30 years increases the sadness we feel at seeing it enter a less-dynamic phase," Murphy and Vernon said in a statement. "Potential for new adventures is greatly diminished in these cash-strapped times."

The SDC has been in financial strife since 2004 when it lost $800,000 as a result of two box office flops. That deficit was wiped out by a one-off $600,000 payment in the last budget, but it is expected to go back into the red by the end of this financial year.

The Sydney Dance Company last performed in Auckland in 2004, with Underland.