Gillian Murphy bids farewell after 29 years
- Ikuko
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
This past week has been all about Gillian Murphy, an irreplaceable ballerina who bid farewell to the stage after 29 years with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) on 18th July 2025 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, The United States.
Gillian, now 46 years old, has been a Principal Dancer with ABT since 2002. She danced pretty much every thinkable main role since then and her final performance was Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. This means she still had/has lots of stamina and I could not help thinking she could have gone on for a few more years. Typically, ballerinas choose something a little less taxing for their body than Swan Lake for their retirement shows.
The New York Times published an article about Gillian a day before her swan song and it discussed exactly that. ABT's Artistic Director Susan Jaffe told the newspaper, “But not Gillian Murphy, and that shows not only her physical strength, but strength of character and courage and determination, which is what she always has embodied.”
The Dance Magazine also published an interview piece with Gillian on 14th July. It and The Times article touched upon similar subjects about her. She told them that the biggest challenge in her career was the Covid-19 lockdown, and that she tendered a retirement. But Kevin McKenzie, then the artistic director, did not accept it immediately. She ended up with coming back to the studios after the reopening, feeling much better than she could have ever expected.
These articles also mention Michael de la Nuez, a corpse ballet member who debuted as Prince Siegfried as opposite to Gillian. I wonder what kind of future lies ahead of him.
Gillian has not yet decided what to do next. She wants to spend some quality time with her husband Ethan Stiefel and their baby.
As my personal memories, I saw Gillian on stage only a few times, including as Medora in Le Corsaire and Giselle. I cannot remember if they were in the full length performances or in galas. I admired her solid technique and physical strength, which make Medora Medroa , and a ghost a ghost, right?
I also remember someone could not travel to a gala performance in Tokyo, which I believe was organized by Nina Ananiashvili just after the 911. I believe it was Gillian before she became a Principal.
I learned about the Gaynor Minden pointe shoes because Gillian wore them. I wore them from around 2008 but gave up on them after the covid-19 pandemic because the quality of the shoes completely changed and the fitter treated me as though I was special.
