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• One of Three, Columbia Spectator, 10/7/09: "Gillian Murphy, too, succeeded in evoking a sense of understated grace and elegance."
  
• One of Three, Newark Star-Ledger, 10/6/09: "It’s all a delicious tease, as when Gillian Murphy and Cory Stearns stand shoulder to shoulder, but then go their separate ways."
  
• Black Swan Pas de Deux, Denver Post, 8/4/09: "Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel, two stars of the American Ballet Theatre, lit up Marius Petipa's famed 'Black Swan Pas de Deux' with their technical brilliance and crowd-pleasing showmanship."
  
• Sylvia, Newark Star-Ledger, 7/6/09: "On Thursday, Gillian Murphy sparkled as Sylvia, completing the line of each arabesque or attitude with a visual "ping" that seemed playfully to echo the musical accents in her first-act variation."
  
• Sylvia, Dancer Universe, 7/3/09: "Gillian Murphy's Sylvia meets love without ever losing her glimmer of strength. She carries it with her throughout the entire ballet. Our huntress is there, she's just in love...Gillian Murphy was razor sharp, with fast turns into a balanced arabesque and quick staccato bourree sections, but she was just as compelling when she walked, simply weaving through the other dancers. Technical proficiency aside, her most bewitching moments were when she triumphantly held up her bow and arrow, a paragon of security and force."
  
• Sylvia, California Chronicle, 7/1/09: "Murphy presented Sylvia's character intelligently and her strength was an asset. She's a powerful, clean dancer and did the difficult choreography without a hitch."
  
• Sylvia, New York Times, 6/30/09: "The role suits Ms. Murphy admirably, with her powerful technique and cool redheaded glamour...it could be her best full-length role."
  
• Giselle, New York Post, 6/10/09: "As queen of the ghostly Wilis, whose ranks Giselle nearly joins after death, Gillian Murphy had fiery red hair and a fierce technique."
  
• Giselle, New York Times, 6/10/09: "It is conventional to dance this role with icy brilliance, and Gillian Murphy did no less on Monday: the proud beauty with which she holds her arms 'en couronne' (haloing the head) at the apex of several jumps was memorable. But she did even more. As she danced from side to side, she allowed her torso to sway with a freedom that suggested that Myrtha’s nightly ritual is, for her, self-expression. She, too, loves to open herself to the air by dancing."
  
• Allegro Brillante, Theme and Variations, New York Observer, 6/9/09: "[O]nce again, Gillian Murphy, in both Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and Theme and Variations, demonstrated that she’s the company’s one consistently reliable Balanchine ballerina. If only we had her at City Ballet."
  
• Gisele, New York Times, 6/5/09: "Gillian Murphy will portray Myrta, queen of the Wilis, both nights — really, though, she should do it every night, so fiercely does she own it."
  
• Allegro Brillante, Connecticut Post, 5/29/09: "Leading off, Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel partnered in the principal roles of 'Allegro Brillante' set to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3. Pianist Barbara Bilach, in the pit, provided a rich and resonant performance to match the dancers' equally elegant ones. Murphy and Stiefel made lifts and leaps seem spontaneous and effortless. Backed by an octet ensemble, this was the lighter-than-air moment of the evening."
  
• Allegro Brilliante, Theme and Variations, Newark Star-Ledger, 5/26/09: "Gillian Murphy brought her amazingly centered pirouettes to both 'Allegro' and 'Theme.' In 'Theme' she is ferociously quick, yet melts with tenderness as she reaches for her partner, Marcelo Gomes, introducing a note of dreamlike fantasy."
  
• Le Corsaire, The Independent, 4/5/09: "[The] slave girls include Gillian Murphy, as our heroine Medora. Murphy is a long-limbed dancer, with sweeping line and sure technique. She approaches the role with admirable gravity, sweetly involved in the daft goings-on around her. It's an open, spontaneous performance."
  
• Le Corsaire, The Times, 4/5/09: Gillian Murphy, who proved herself a stunning Odette-Odile a week earlier, was a feisty Medora, indulging her talent as a prodigious turner (quadruple pirouettes among the fouettés, no less) while not forgetting to bring flirtatious sincerity to her romantic partnership with Conrad.
  
• Le Corsaire, Financial Times, 4/3/09: Gillian Murphy, as Medora, the heroine, spun like several tops (and amazingly so).
  
• Le Corsaire, MusicOMH.com, 4/3/09: Gillian Murphy as Medora held her own, applying a certain precociousness to her dancing, which suited the character of this alluring figure. In this respect, Act Two stood out as the dancing of Gomes, Murphy and Angel Corella as the slave Ali reached its zenith...[w]ith Murphy delivering a superb sequence of fouetté turns[.]"
  
• Le Corsaire, The Guardian, 4/3/09: "If score cards were allowed in ballet, some perfect 10s would have been handed out to the opening cast of American Ballet Theatre's Corsaire...to Gillian Murphy (Medora) folding a jaw-dropping extravagance of quadruple turns into her second act fouettés...Some of the company's finest moments can be seen in the dancing of Murphy, sweetly grinning as she dares herself to ever more airborne feats in her second act pas de deux with Gomes."
  
• Allegro Brillante, Ballet Magazine, February 2009: "In her assured and articulate performance of the ballerina role, Gillian Murphy sustained the dizzying tempo of the music, dancing with sparkling elegance and élan, meticulously executing every phrase and bringing an inescapable sense of glamour to the dance."
  
• Season Review, Village Voice, 11/5/08: "Catching Gillian Murphy at the window [in R&J], David Hallberg slings her, arrow-straight, onto his hip and bends sideways to bring his face close to hers. Both are marvelous...Murphy looks atypically—and charmingly—flyaway in Paul Taylor's Company B...It's great, too, to see stars like Cornejo and Murphy as part of an ensemble—Murphy mingling with the lovesick girls and Cornejo crawling along with the other guys to grab for the enticing Misty Copeland's ankles in "Rum and Coca-Cola."
  
• Season Review, New York Times, 11/3/08: "Several Ballet Theater women grew visibly as artists this season. The differences among Gillian Murphy’s four roles — in 'Company B,' 'Pillar of Fire,' Tudor’s 'Romeo’s Farewell to Juliet' pas de deux and Jiri Kylian’s 'Overgrown Path' — declared forcefully that Ms. Murphy is a more diverse and arresting actress than has been acknowledged. She really seemed a different woman in each work...In 'Pillar of Fire' her fiercely objective demonstration of the choreography and its expressive points was exemplary. The way, amid her duet with the Man Next Door, she delivered several spasmlike movements to successive pizzicati in the score has stuck in my head. And the expansive loveliness of her dancing in relatively simple movements reached a new peak in 'Company B,' where her yearning backbends in fourth position had a full-bloom quality that reminded me of Patricia McBride at her most affecting in Balanchine’s 'Harlequinade.'"
  
• Pillar of Fire, Romeo & Juliet, Bloomberg, : "Gillian Murphy's power in the central role was soul-wrenching...[In R&J] Murphy and David Hallberg were both expressive and precise, making every gesture count."
  
• Season Review, New York Times, 10/30/08: "When Gillian Murphy...or Michele Wiles or...Mr. Hallberg take three or more different roles within a few days, you’re thrilled by the ready versatility that these principals, and indeed the whole company, are showing."
  
• Romeo's Farewell to Juliet, Wall Street Journal, 10/29/08: "The luminous Gillian Murphy as Juliet and the dreamy David Hallberg as Romeo performed generously to render Tudor's forcefully geometric world of young love."
  
• Romeo's Farewell to Juliet, Company B, Financial Times, 10/27/08: "It is always interesting to see how an artist develops, especially one as talented as Gillian Murphy, who is among American Ballet Theatre’s most technically spectacular dancers. This was particularly evident during the company’s opening night gala when, with David Hallberg as Romeo, she danced Juliet’s farewell scene from Antony Tudor’s Romeo and Juliet...Murphy’s was a forlorn yet passionate Juliet, never letting her bravura technique eclipse the tender desperation of parting. In the newly acquired Company B, Paul Taylor’s jolly romp to Andrews Sisters recordings from the second world war...she caught the shadows underpinning Taylor’s works as the girl hankering over a gay man in I Can Dream, Can’t I?"
  
• On an Overgrown Path, New York Times, 10/24/08: "Gillian Murphy, beautiful in the leading role, has one duet with Marcelo Gomes in which he seems to start by consoling her. From behind, he places a palm tenderly to one side of her face and then the other. The rocking side-to-side motion of this has a pat-a-cake game quality that makes it unconvincing anyway. Certainly it does her no good. Soon she’s kicking her legs both right and left as he lifts her. Ms. Murphy gives this a marvelous attack, and we know she’s kicking against fate. Later in the ballet Ms. Murphy and Mr. Gomes go through the whole routine all over again, this time on a bigger scale, before she finally departs through that great black gap in the center of the stage whose name we now know is Death."
  
• Sleeping Beauty, New York Times, 7/20/08: "When Gillian Murphy appears as Aurora, she’s no fairy-tale heroine...She is, however, a real dancer, a stylist who applies herself to the dance core of her choreography, and to its music. It was remarkable to see how much of the choreography fell into focus in her performance as it hadn’t with others. She knows how to make dance suspense from an incidental dissonance at one point in the score, how to luxuriate and fill one slow passage of music before suddenly arriving in a different position with the dramatic ending of a phrase, how to make a pirouette’s dramatic up-and-out arrival coincide with a flourish in the score. She likes to dance with her whole body too. In her entrance dance, it was she whose torso leaned forward the farthest, and in her wedding adagio, it was she whose spine arched the farthest. And so Aurora herself, this embodiment of spring and renewal, starts to become not just a character but also a life force at the ballet’s center."
  
• Giselle, New York Times, 7/9/08: "Gillian Murphy has few finer roles than Myrta, queen of the wilis. She never overdoes the vindictive side, and instead, by dancing every aspect of the choreography with full value, she allows the character’s magisterial allure to gleam."
  
• Don Quixote, New York Post, 6/11/08: "The lead couple - Gillian Murphy showing a fleet brilliance and a remarkable security as Kitri (Quiteria in Cervantes), with Ethan Stiefel's quietly amusing and effortlessly stylish Basil - were backed up by the entire company."
  
• Don Quixote, New York Sun, 6/11/08: "Ms. Murphy wasn't an overly shrewish or capricious señorita; she was just flirtatious and temperamental and mischievous enough. She alternately kicked and stretched her legs impressively, and made vivid the distinction between the modes of presentation. She turned brilliantly, which came as no surprise. She was also able to transform herself into an enticing but aloof figment of the Don's imagination in the Act 2 dream sequence."
  
• Don Quixote, New York Times, 6/10/08: "In some ways Gillian Murphy is perfectly cast as the heroine Kitri...Ms. Murphy is probably the company’s foremost female technician, as well as a musical and intelligent performer. She is charming as Kitri, and her rapport with Mr. Stiefel is both emotionally lively and physically responsive...it seems slightly unfair to ask more of anyone who can do perfect-form quadruple fouette turns while fanning herself — which is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach while doing back flips."
  
• Don Quixote, New York Sun, 5/21/08: "The grand pas de deux from "Don Quixote" is a gala cliché that was rescued from such by Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel, who danced it minus the individual variations. Ms. Murphy was ebullient and inoffensively technical...I haven't seen these two dance together in several years, and they seemed now more like a real partnership and less like an established star shepherding a younger one."
  
• Swan Lake, Ballet-Dance Magazine, 3/17/08: "That Gillian Murphy is a beautiful dancer with a strong sense of balance and honed technique is clear from the moment she appears on stage...As Odette, Murphy did a fine job of transmitting the warmth and fragility of a white swan in her gestures and interactions with Fadeev. A kiss on the lips, a head on his shoulder, his arms around her - it was clear this was a couple in love, not just going through the motions. As Odile, Murphy's persona was stronger. She performed triple pirouettes in the Black Swan variation, and her fouettés, dotted with doubles every other turn with the arms in third high, were indeed impressive. She regarded Fadeev as a spider watches a fly; their pas de deux was about her conquest, and her success...This American ballerina managed to enrapture the local crowd just as much as our beloved Kirov ballerinas do.
  
• Fall River Legend (Best of 2007), New York Newsday, 12/30/07: "8. BEST REVIVAL. At least with Radetsky as the kindly yet craven pastor and Gillian Murphy as the social maladroit whose body knows more about her misery and murderousness than she ever will, Agnes de Mille's 1948 "Fall River Legend" at American Ballet Theatre was at once funny and wrenching."
  
• Fall River Legend, New York Times, 11/6/07: "The Accused is a role that demands the ability to transmute technique into the expression of the passionate intensity, psychological pain and pure hatred that drive the character to her gruesome deeds. And in 2007 it also demands a strength of interpretation that can transcend the stylized Americana that makes this work feel museum-piece valuable and dated at the same time. Ms. Murphy managed just that in an impressive role debut on Friday night. Her auburn hair drawn tightly away from her face into a gleaming skullcap, her pale face tight and impassive above her high-necked dress, she embodied (to borrow the title of a famous piece of feminist literature) the madwoman in the attic — the Victorian antiheroine who incarnates the rage and anxiety forbidden by a sexually repressive, socially coercive society. There is plenty of dancing for the Accused in 'Fall River Legend,' but it is testament to Ms. Murphy’s acting that the movements became a seamless part of a succession of memorable emotional moments: her little shudder as the details of the violent acts are read out at the beginning; her suppressed amusement and momentary triumph at her father and stepmother’s fear when she first picks up the ax to chop wood; her disbelieving, scarcely allowable pleasure when the young pastor (Sascha Radetsky, also strong in a role debut) offers her love and compassion. By the time Ms. Murphy, alone onstage at the end, threw back her body and opened her arms in a final, anguished embrace of death and her fate, she had made her character simultaneously tragic and real.
  
• Fall River Legend, Associated Press, 11/6/07: "Gillian Murphy, known less for her dramatic skills than her impeccable technique, was admirably up to the acting demands of the work."
  
• From Here on Out, New York Newsday, 11/2/07: "Gillian Murphy darts a glance to the wings as if suspecting danger beyond this opaque bubble of a world."
  
• Fancy Free, New York Times, 11/1/07: "David Hallberg, Paloma Herrera and Gillian Murphy are never less than remarkable technicians, but whoever knew without seeing 'Fancy Free' what it would reveal in them as detailed character actors?"
  
• Ballo Della Regina, Bloomberg.Com, 11/1/07: "I saw Gillian Murphy in the ballerina role and, while no dancer can ever replace another, she did Ashley proud."
  
• Ballo Della Regina, New York Times, 10/30/07: "On Friday it was good to see the first-cast Gillian Murphy both more brilliant and more relaxed than she had been at the premiere on Tuesday."
• Ballo Della Regina, Village Voice, 10/30/07: "Murphy...possesses the clarity and speed of foot needed to ace the dazzling orgy of pointe work that Balanchine devised for Ashley."
  
• From Here on Out, New York Sun, 10/29/07: "Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg were almost as good, with their interaction somehow more sportive and playful than that of the opening-night cast."
  
• Ballo Della Regina, New York Times, 10/25/07: "Gillian Murphy doesn't seem to know how good she is."
  
• Sleeping Beauty, Winston-Salem Journal, 10/16/07: "Stiefel and his girlfriend, NCSA alumna Gillian Murphy, both principals with the American Ballet Theatre, danced The Sleeping Beauty adagio to thunderous applause."
  
• Romeo & Juliet, New York Post, 6/22/07: "Murphy, making her debut as Juliet, gave a fine-toned performance of surprising passion. Matched in her immaculate technique by Hallberg's Romeo, they were a study in headlong romantic doom."
  
• Manon, New York Times, 6/13/07: "The evening rightly belonged to Ms. Ferri and Mr. Bolle, but Ethan Stiefel’s debut as the dastardly Lescaut and Gillian Murphy as his mistress deserve their own plaudits...All in all, this was just about as perfect a 'Manon' as there is likely to be."
  
• Sleeping Beauty, New York Times, 6/12/07: "On Saturday afternoon...Mr. Hallberg reprised his Prince with Ms. Murphy. (It was the only show for which the two were scheduled.) As they have demonstrated earlier this season in 'Othello' and 'The Dream,' they share a generous performing nature, prodigious technique and a perceptible yearning to take their roles further than they imagined they could. Mr. Hallberg — tall, blond and fetchingly noble — highlights, in Ms. Murphy, an appealing fragility, like that of an orchid, as George Balanchine once described his ballerinas. Her ability to whip off piqué and chaîné turns with demon speed tells only half the story. She came alive as Aurora, aided in part by the production’s magnificent lighting, which seemed to be designed for her arresting, redheaded glamour. Dancing within the lustrous, autumnal setting, which shifted from a fiery mango to the deepest rose, Ms. Murphy was more than pretty in pink. She glowed."
  
• Sleeping Beauty, New York Sun, 6/8/2007: "On Tuesday night, Gillian Murphy's Aurora, her second of the run, was a case of velvet glove never totally disguising steel fist. She didn't do anything cheap, and, even while discharging the full complement of her blazing technical resources, never capsized the role. Ms. Murphy developed her own details of characterization — inhaling the roses presented by her Act I suitors, for example...Her cocked head and childlike ingenuousness at times made her seem arch."
  
• Sleeping Beauty, New York Post, 6/4/07: "Gillian Murphy, as Aurora in the evening, was a paragon of technique."
  
• The Dream, New York Times, 5/28/07: "I was happily held, especially in the Saturday matinee’s pairing of Gillian Murphy (who reveled in Titania’s lissome bendings and frissons), with the glowingly heroic Oberon of David Hallberg."
  
• La Bayadere, New York Times, 5/17/07: "Once again Ms. Murphy made Gamzatti as pitiable a creature as she is evil, but this is a ballerina who needs a substantial work created for her. Mr. Corella’s easy, soaring jumps and Ms. Murphy’s astringently slicing limbs were a pleasure."
  
• La Bayadere, New York Sun, 5/17/07: "As Gamzatti, Gillian Murphy imprinted infallibly etched images of pride, love, and ruthless will. She has studied the role so thoroughly and respectfully that even when she brings her own time and culture to Gamzatti's rarified reactions and body language, they don't coarsen her performance, but rather add to its vitality. Ms. Murphy has refined her natural facility for turning, so that her multiple fouettés in the Pas d'Action coda were smooth as silk, and her pirouettes in her last act solo, followed by an echoing spiral into the upper body, were mesmerizing."
  
• La Bayadere, Newark Star-Ledger, 5/17/07: "[T]he gala concluded with an exceptional performance by Gillian Murphy as Gamzatti in the Pas d'Action. Murphy displayed effortless resilience in her leaps and exquisite musicality. Heaven knows, she can turn."
  
• La Bayadere, New York Post, 5/17/07: "Ballet must be a beautiful machine for dancing, and here...Murphy's dazzling Gamzatti (with a nicely tuned, Bette Davis-style jealousy scene)...exulted in every chance the ballet offered."
  
• Le Corsaire and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Dallas Morning News, 4/12/07: The mood shifted with stunning, dangerous lifts in Le Corsaire Bedroom Pas de Deux, as Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg rushed into each other's arms...Redemption came at the end, in Balanchine's gorgeous Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. Ms. Murphy and Mr. Hallberg made every walk, lift, turn and jump look effortless, reminding us that ballet can bring the sublime into crystal-clear focus."
  
• Diana and Actaeon, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 4/7/07: "Raised on pointe and balanced on one foot, Gillian Murphy drew cheers as she spun herself through a dizzying number of fouettes."
  
• Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, New York Sun, 11/7/06: "[P]rincipal dancers like Gillian Murphy and Michele Wiles projected convincing enthusiasm in the ensemble camaraderie that emerges as a theme in Mr. Morris's work."
  
• In the Upper Room, Village Voice, 10/30/06: "I'm in tears by the end, overwhelmed by the choreography's brilliance and the white-hot ardor of the two sets of six dancers...Who knew Gillian Murphy could be such a boisterously cool cat and ensemble player?"
  
• In the Upper Room, New York Times, 10/22/06: "Gillian Murphy — fun-loving, a bit erotic, incandescent — was the ballet’s heartbeat. She owns it."
  
• In the Upper Room, Associated Press, 10/20/06: Gillian Murphy was a particular standout. Whether jogging backward into the mists or shuddering her torso like a champion boxer going for the head fake just before the knockout, she seemed to move twice as much as the other dancers even when moving in tandem with them.
  
• Sylvia, New York Sun, 7/5/06: "Fonteyn could not jump the way ABT's Gillian Murphy did on Monday night...Young Ms. Murphy is just beginning to manifest the theatrical acumen of a Fonteyn, but overall she did more than commendable justice to the many facets of Sylvia. She cleverly used every possibility the role gave to expand her range. Returning from the hunt, in Act I, her leaps were expectedly galvanic and had a tomboy charm. She inflected these thunderclap jumps with dramatic intention, as well. In her Act I, there was also a girlishness that foreshadowed the lovelorn heroine she was to become. Ms. Murphy manifested an understanding of the physical oppositions and dynamic stillness of the contraposto poses that are every bit as important to this role as any choreographic step. Ms. Murphy has developed in a way that allows her to articulate her legs with more suppleness and eroticism than before. In Act II, imprisoned by the hunter Orion, she leads a bacchanal to get him safely disabled by drink...her acting, particularly in Act II, was completely persuasive. She was an ideal embodiment of renunciation when refusing the cloths of gold and other blandishments proffered by Orion's slaves. She was every bit the grand heroine of mythological drama that she needed to be at the conclusion of Act II, when she kneels center stage, pinpointed by a lone spotlight, and appeals to Eros for help."
  
• Sylvia, New York Times, 7/5/06: "Gillian Murphy, who danced the title role on Monday, was born to play Sylvia, a nymph whose fealty to the goddess Diana requires the renunciation of love. Not the Sylvia of Margot Fonteyn, for whom Ashton created the role in 1952, but certainly a Sylvia for a postfeminist era in which ballet technique has spun out to feats and complexities unimaginable in Fonteyn's time. Ms. Murphy can move abruptly, but even early in her career she had a gift for ornamenting bold, bravura dancing with filigree musical phrasing, and that gift serves her well in 'Sylvia.'"
  
• Manon, Wall Street Journal, 6/22/06: "In the none-too-fleshed out, secondary female role of Lescaut's Mistress, Gillian Murphy makes her mark even more effectively than the role's Royal Ballet originator, Monica Mason. Ms. Murphy, long of leg, strong of foot and unflappable of temperament, gives MacMillan's sometimes amusing choreography a vividness all her own. Wittily engulfing Mr. Cornejo in a duet that nearly flattens the tipsy Lescaut, Ms. Murphy is the essence of comic and classical cool."
  
• Manon, New York Sun, 6/21/06: "Gillian Murphy made all the right slattern moves...she wins my admiration."
  
• Manon, New York Times, 6/21/06: "Gillian Murphy was far more fluent and seductive as Lescaut's Mistress than Sarah Lamb had been in Boston."
  
• Cinderella, Gay City News, 6/15/06: "[T]he technically nonpareil Gillian Murphy appealed with coy charm and playfulness."
  
• Giselle, New York Sun, 6/14/06: "Dancing Myrtha, the queen of the Wilis, Gillian Murphy contributed significantly to the high quality of this second act. The amplitude, legible intent, and inhumanly slow tempo of her gestures made her a riveting figure of authority. Malevolent she certainly was, but she was not a vampire. She stayed within the parameters of Romantic ballet at its most lofty and lyric. Ms. Murphy's performance evinced her newfound powers and confidence as a dance actress. When the efficacy of her myrtle scepter was defeated by Albrecht and Giselle's unanimity - or their taking refuge by the cross over Giselle's grave, depending on how you read the narrative - Ms. Murphy crumpled. For a moment, we saw the betrayed maiden she, too, had once been. But a moment later she was again icily indomitable."
  
• Giselle, New York Times, 6/14/06: "Gillian Murphy may not be the most imperious of Myrtas, but her dancing was so exquisite that it hardly mattered."
  
• Cinderella, New York Sun, 6/5/06: "She was a sweet and companionable heroine...Her dancing was clear and spirited; her one real chance to show off her virtuosic wallop came in the Act 3 solo, where Cinderella is given a diagonal of fouettes."
  
• Cinderella, New York Post, 6/5/06: "The second cast, a joyfully piquant Gillian Murphy as the rags-to-riches scullery maid matched by David Hallberg, dancing with aristocratic dazzle and looking snooty, was even better the following afternoon"
  
• Cinderella, Newark Star-Ledger, 6/4/06: "At the Saturday matinee, Gillian Murphy grasped her character's spontaneity...In her underwear, Murphy is the hottest Cinderella on record."
  
• Jeu de Cartes, New York Times, 5/30/06: "Also new was Gillian Murphy as a witty Queen of Hearts."
  
• Apollo, New York Times, 5/29/06: "Gillian Murphy was the new Polyhymnia...she danced beautifully."
  
• Apollo/Jeu de Cartes, Newark Star-Ledger, 5/28/06: "Gillian Murphy (Polyhymnia) and Stella Abrera (Calliope) are...delightful...The Queen of Hearts, who loves to be petted and kissed, can be zany (Irina Dvorovenko) or winsome (Murphy)."
  
• Le Corsaire, New York Times, 5/27/06: "Gillian Murphy, the evening's Medora, gets better and better at coloring technical feats with delicately unexpected phrasing and bits of dramatic business."
  
• Le Corsaire, New York Post, 5/25/06: "that sparkling spinner Gillian Murphy as Medora..."
  
• Le Corsaire, New York Sun, 5/24/06: "'Le Corsaire Suite,' a grab-bag of treats from the ballet, saw Gillian Murphy as Medora at her most distinguished in the Adagio of the famous pas de trois. Ms. Murphy then performed a fetching solo..."
  
• Le Corsaire, New York Times, 5/24/06: "Gillian Murphy was at her pointed and precise best."
  
• Le Corsaire, New York Post, 5/24/06: "But the real flash-dash climax of the evening was something called "Le Corsaire Suite," put together from Anna-Marie Holmes' staging of "Le Corsaire," which had Gillian Murphy, Xiomara Reyes, Marcelo Gomes, Jose Manuel Carreno and Herman Cornejo all glittering and shining like a Christmas tree on speed."
  
• Le Corsaire, Financial Times, 5/23/06: "crowd- pleasing gala fare with Gillian Murphy nonchalantly tossing off triple fouettés."
  
• 2006 Met Season Preview, Bloomberg, 5/19/06: "Gillian Murphy and Michele Wiles represent a distinctly American type of ballerina: frank and forthright. Murphy is a bold dancer with steely technique, a flair for drama and a sense of humor."
  
• ABT Poster, 5/14/06: "They are kissing but not embracing. There's pain and loss built into this contact. Except for their lips they are barely touching, and her white arms are raised, angled and bent back like wings. And that's what gives it away."
  
• Sylvia, Los Angeles Times, 5/8/06: "In the title role, Gillian Murphy...presided over the huntress corps with enormous power in Act 1 and brought dazzling speed and precision to her last-act pizzicato variation."
  
• Apollo, Los Angeles Times, 5/4/06: "[A]s usual, Gillian Murphy (Polyhymnia) exuded prowess."
  
• Sylvia and Apollo (Preview), Whittier Daily News, 4/28/06: "'I find it challenging and exhilarating,' said Gillian Murphy, who will dance the lead role...'Ashton's choreography is so fulfilling: the transformation of the character and the opportunity to express that. The music is quite beautiful, and the sets and costumes create this magical feeling.'...'I feel it is an honor to dance the role created for Margot Fonteyn,' she said. 'To be part of carrying on that tradition is exciting.'...'I look forward to dancing Apollo' because of Balanchine's musicality. His choreography feels so right. There's so much beauty in his abstraction,' she said. 'There's an emotional quality but no story. As a dancer you throw yourself into it.'"
  
• Le Corsaire, Chicago Sun-Times, 3/31/06: "[I]t could not have been a better teaser, with sensational dancing of several fiendishly difficult variations by Gillian Murphy (partnered by David Hallberg)"
  
• Closer, Gay City News, 3/23/06: "Murphy makes a sparkling entrance of chaînés turns into the center of the room...I liked their imperfect, unstructured-looking interaction and later in a sitting duet they are, indeed, closer. Millepied lies down and Murphy leaves him, a pleasant contemporary twist. The dispassionate workaday mood is loving."
  
• Closer, Village Voice, 3/17/06: "You can almost feel a breeze rippling through the clean, open space -- white floor, sunny light. The movement...looks fluid, easy, understated even when difficult. Both dancers wear soft slippers, and their solos are full of little springy steps and easily spun out turns. Their shoulders, twisting and shrugging subtly, give a lightly temperamental edge to the steps. These are two handsome, extraordinarily gifted dancers."
  
• Closer, New York Sun, 3/16/06: "Ms. Murphy then danced a solo that included furious spins, inverted arms, and dribbling feet. She wore flat ballet slippers and showed once more her ability to transform her customarily emphatic virtuoso balletic style. Ms. Murphy sometimes comes off as a shy performer, so it seemed like an adjustment for her to be performing so close to an audience. (The Joyce is a fraction of the size of the opera houses in which ABT plays.) But she achieved poise and transparency that suited the material and the venue."
  
• Closer, New York Newsday, 3/16/06: "Millepied's love duet 'Closer' opens on the unerringly bright Gillian Murphy...In Murphy's subsequent solo, the movement cycles through the legs as well as the arms."
  
• Closer, New York Times, 3/16/06: "The energetic bursts and relaxed moments in Philip Glass's "Mad Rush"...were deftly matched by the dance."
  
• Gong, Washington Post, 2/2/06: "Gillian Murphy rose up tall on toe, her other leg extended to the side in a perfect right angle; she balanced for a glorious moment, then tipped over sideways -- still holding the shape of a carpenter's square -- to plunge to the stage...Despite "Gong's" riot of color and richly overlaid score, its power comes from the unembellished simplicity of its lines, angles and dancer courage."
  
• Swan Lake (on DVD), Digitally Obsessed, 1/31/06: "As host Caroline Kennedy notes, this is one tough role for a ballerina, but Gillian Murphy is more than up to the challenge. Her Odette in Act II is severely controlled, a fascinating exercise in character, in comparison to the flamboyant and cruel Odile. Not only does she execute the famous 32 fouettes near the end of Act III without problem, but she throws in a couple of extra spins for good measure."
  
• In The Upper Room, New York Times, 10/28/05: "There is a luscious feeling of freedom to the swivels and sidles seemingly tossed out by Stella Abrera and Gillian Murphy at the start of the first section."
  
• Kaleidoscope/Gong, Village Voice, 10/26/05: "Gong...offers more than just stunning patterns (for 12 principals plus six women) and arresting, unexpected moments (like the virtuosic Murphy being promenaded in low arabesque by Sasha Radetsky)."
  
• Apollo, New York Times, 10/24/05: "Ms. Murphy shone with sly wit and verve as Polyhymnia."
  
• Kaleidoscope, New York Daily News, 10/24/05: "Two couples...the other playful and untroubled (Gillian Murphy and Stiefel), make their way among this otherworldly clan."
  
• Kaleidoscope, New York Sun, 10/24/05: "Once Ethan Stiefel enters...the corps recedes to the opposite end of the stage in step with the crystalline runs on the piano. They immediately retread their ground at the appearance of Gillian Murphy, forming a protective boundary that separates the pair. The two finally unite, punctuated by Ms. Murphy's extensions in her supported arabesques, filling out the phrases for horn in the orchestra pit."
  
• Kaleidoscope, New York Times, 10/24/05: "a strong cast headed by Gillian Murphy..."
  
• Gong, New York Times, 10/21/05: "Gillian Murphy, Sascha Radetsky, Ms. Cornejo and Grant DeLong were particularly striking in the slow, stiff but strangely moving silent duets."
  
• Gong, New York Times, 10/21/05: "Ballerinas Gillian Murphy and Michelle Wiles appeared to enjoy concentrating...on projecting every movement very powerfully."
  
• City Center Fall Preview, New York Sun, 10/21/05: "As quintessentially American as Ms. Part is Russian, Gillian Murphy joined ABT in 1996, instantly raising our national banner of strong, brisk, technical prowess. In recent years she has also begun to demonstrate the healthiest and most sophisticated of ambitions, not only seeking the ballpark acclaim given to a personable young woman who can turn and jump brilliantly, but striving for the subtler reaches of artistic achievement. She has introduced all sorts of interesting wrinkles and curlicues to her formerly uninflected bluntness, expanding her range with every new role she tries."
  
• Sylvia, Show Business Weekly, 7/6/05: "As American Ballet Theater’s spring season at the Met drew to a close on July 16th, a few highlights emerged among the sumptuous productions and brilliantly danced performances. Chief among them is the exquisitely talented principal dancer Gillian Murphy...Few would argue that Murphy has ascended to the top of ABT’s principal ballerina roster this season, and, at 25, is destined to become one of ABT’s brightest stars...From Murphy’s first majestic entrance, leaping across the stage, she owns the role. Endowed with long, exquisitely shaped legs, tapered feet, and a supple but strong body, she personifies the warrior nymph. With her regal presence, Murphy enhances the role with her astonishing technique, which abounds with buoyant jumps, and beautifully controlled pirouettes – sometimes executed at warp speed. Her masterful timing and sure-footed balance enables her to take risks in exciting duets. And her silvery footwork in her pizzicato solos is delicate and airy. To dance the role of Sylvia requires stamina that few ballerinas can sustain. She is on stage more than 80 percent of the time, and the level of difficulty of the choreography never wavers. Neither did Murphy’s performance."
  
• Les Sylphides, Financial Times, 6/27/05: "Gillian Murphy, transforming herself from Arcadia's Sylvia of earlier this season to Chopin's sylph, appeared to float above ground."
  
• Les Sylphides, New York Sun, 6/27/05: "Gillian Murphy on Saturday afternoon was delicately forthright in her allegro movements."
  
• Swan Lake (on PBS), Boston Globe, 6/20/05: "Gillian Murphy and Angel Corella are among the most glorious couples I've ever seen in 'Swan Lake,' and that alone makes tonight's televised version of American Ballet Theatre's current production a must-watch...Ballet Theatre fans nostalgic for the days when the likes of Cynthia Gregory and Fernando Bujones appeared in the company's productions of the beloved classic will have a hard time finding fault with Murphy's and Corella's dazzling dancing. Their ardor, their ability to linger in the moment rather than rushing through it, tell the story with heartbreaking poignancy."
  
• Swan Lake (on PBS), Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/20/05: "Gillian Murphy, the American sensation who plays the demanding dual role of Odette/Odile, has the innocent face of a young girl and the technical virtuosity of a prima ballerina. As Odette, the White Swan, she is a model of calm control, soft lyricism and fluttering, birdlike movements. As Odile, the Black Swan, she turns into a dynamic seductress who not only nails the famous 32 fouettes but also throws in a few extra turns."
• Swan Lake (on PBS), Washington Times, 6/20/05: "In the dual role of Odette-Odile, Gillian Murphy is...technically dazzling -- supple as Odette and a pyrotechnics wonder as Odile."
• Les Sylphides, Newsday, 6/20/05: As Thursday's chief sylph, the plucky Gillian Murphy moved from bounding leaps into soft bourrees backward, her arms trailing forward as if in water, without pause for preparation: an astounding birdlike trill from step to step."
• Les Sylphides, Newark-Star Ledger, 6/20/05: "Gillian Murphy appeared light in the Mazurka and divinely tender in the pas de deux."
• Les Sylphides, New York Times, 6/18/05: "[T]he greatest pleasure came from Gillian Murphy and Maxim Beloserkovsky. These two are forming a really elegant partnership, and Ms. Murphy's purity of line and lyrical grace were something to behold. She may have been first rate as the huntress Sylvia, but she was special in this."
• Sylvia, Newark Star-Ledger, 6/17/05: "Gillian Murphy basked in Sylvia's glamour."
• Sylvia, Financial Times, 6/13/05: "Gillian Murphy...has particularly come into her own this season. Murphy has all the attributes for the eponymous heroine in a ballet choreographed originally for Margot Fonteyn."
• Sylvia, Newsday, 6/6/05: "Murphy's steely strength and brilliant shaped leaps immediately established her as a huntress no man should mess with. Her stunning pirouettes and pristine classical form shone in the noble pageantry of the third act."
  
• Sylvia, New York Times, 6/6/05: "Gillian Murphy, who danced Sylvia on Friday, looked as if she were born to dance this role. Her natural, bold attack and imposing presence make her the perfect Sylvia...It is the clarity and surge of Ms. Murphy's dancing that are exciting here."
  
• Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 2, New York Times, 6/3/05: "Excellent in the female lead on Wednesday, Ms. Murphy used her incredible technique as a root to find the freedom within the rippling architecture of Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 2 in G for Piano and Orchestra. Her naturally regal demeanor allowed the ballet to bloom like a flower."
  
• Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 2, New York Sun, 5/31/05: "[W]ith an annunciatory stride wholly befitting the role, Ms. Murphy traced a small circle with one foot, then the other. She fills out the motif, each gesture escalating with the pounding statement on the piano: first lifting a leg, then doing a single pirouette, and eventually forging a grand ronde de jambe."
  
• Ballet Imperial, Newsday, 5/30/05: "Gillian Murphy, who's always coming and going, abandons her cavalier, Maxim Beloserkovsky, and he appeals for solace to women of the corps.
  
• Don Quixote, New York Times, 5/28/05: "Ms. Murphy had lots of snap, and her secure spins seemed ready to last forever."
  
• Don Quixote, New York Times, 5/25/05: "Gillian Murphy [et al.] upheld the female side of the roster with varying, mostly impressive degrees of aplomb."
  
• Don Quixote, New York Sun, 5/25/05: "Gillian Murphy in the 'Kitri Variations from Act I' astounded with her imperturbable balances."
  
• Don Quixote, Associated Press, 5/24/05: "Gillian Murphy had barely a minute on stage, but drew one of the biggest hands of the night with her quicksilver turns."
  
• Ballet Imperial, LA City Beat, 5/4/2005: "high-powered, extremely musical."
  
• Giselle, Chicago Sun-Times, 4/21/05: "To the role of Myrta, queen of the Wilis, the impressively regal Gillian Murphy brought a commanding yet mournful presence."
  
• Giselle, Chicago Tribune, 4/21/05: "Artful Gillian Murphy is a splendid Myrta..."
  
• Swan Lake, GW Hatchet, 2/10/05: "Gillian Murphy danced the lead role as if it was made especially for her. Her performance was gleaming: delicate, sensitive, sexy and seductive."
  
• Swan Lake, Washington Post, 2/10/05: "In the dual role of the enslaved Odette and controlling Odile, Gillian Murphy employed her nearly faultless technique in clear, if uncomplicated, portrayals. Her Odette was skittish and trembly; her Odile a self-satisfied center of attention...Murphy possessed an air of coolness that underscored her technical strength."
  
• Pillar of Fire, Houston Chronicle, 11/15/04: "Gillian Murphy, Friday's Hagar, played up the Martha Graham influences in Tudor's choreography to brilliant effect — severe and believably sucker-punched by her circumstances."
  
• Theme and Variations, New York Times, 10/30/04: "a dazzling performance from Gillian Murphy and Mr. Gomes, very much at home here."
  
• Les Sylphides, New York Times, 10/27/04: "Gillian Murphy crossed the stage with big leaps in the first Mazurka...Marcelo Gomes seemed a dreamy poet in the second Mazurka, and he and Ms. Murphy were rapturously united in the pas de deux."
  
• Coppelia, New York Times, 7/1/04: "Pure white-heat dancing would seem to be out of character for this cheerful frolic of a ballet and especially for Swanilda,but Ms. Murphy somehow made it work.Her role debut stood out not only for her wonderfully impetuous characterization but even more for her dazzling but respectful ornamentation of the choreography, particularly in her third-act variations. Never have turns seemed to skim the ground quite so fast and close. Ms. Murphy even made the tiresome Spanish and Scottish solos exciting, yet she communicated poignantly the quiet radiance of a puppet seeming to come magically to life."
  
• Swan Lake, Associated Press, 6/23/04: "Gillian Murphy as Odette/Odile is one of the very best in the role...Murphy, who is justifiably famous for her turns, whipped off a bunch of triple fouettes, which many dancers cannot even do. She drew a deserved gasp from the audience."
  
• Swan Lake, Dance View Times, 6/18/04: "Gillian Murphy, whose tensile classical purity and deepening emotional range have had her going from strength to strength this season, had Ethan Stiefel as her prince...Murphy, as always, was exceptionally musical in every aspect of her dancing, never straining for an effect that might break the close connection with Tchaikovsky...Murphy and Stiefel brought more than the requisite dazzle and excitement to Act III, without ever letting things turn gaudy or tacky. Murphy used her astonishing technical authority to create an Odile who glories in her power over Siegfried...The pas de deux built with gradual but definite energy toward the coda, in which Murphy unfurled quadruple fouettés (I felt like I was at a skating competition for a moment, trying to count the spins) and she brought things to a blazing finale."
  
• Swan Lake, New York Times, 6/16/04: "On Monday night Gillian Murphy, refreshingly youthful and technically astounding in the dual role of Odette-Odile, led off the run of performances...Who can match the triple pirouettes followed by the double turns (in attitude position) with which she begins her solo here?"
  
• Raymonda, New York Times, 6/6/04: "Gillian Murphy, the matinee Raymonda, is one of the most exciting ballerinas of her young generation...often with her there is the thrill of a work in progress — a work that will grow and deepen quickly — when she tackles a new role...What Ms. Murphy did offer was her great gift, in the first-act dream vision scene and early in the second act, for challenging herself technically and merging those brilliantly accomplished feats with exultantly fluid musical dancing. Hers is a high-wire walk of sublime grace."
  
• Theme and Variations, New York Times, 5/29/04: "'Theme and Variations' was led on Wednesday in a straightforward refreshing manner by Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg."
  
• Ballet Imperial, New York Times, 5/26/04: "The company's revival of the 1941 'Ballet Imperial' was also a triumph for Gillian Murphy in her debut in the fiercely difficult ballerina role...Ms. Murphy's early solo to the thrilling piano cadenza of Barbara Bilach with David LaMarche's lively conducting, rightly promised energy, speed and detail for the rest of the ballet."
  
• La Bayadere, New York Times, 5/20/04"Gillian Murphy's Gamzatti had a gemlike sharpness...Ms. Murphy invested the ballet's final moments with dramatic tension."
  
• La Bayadere, New York Times, 5/17/04"Mr. Bocca delivered as well in the betrothal scene where a polished classical ensemble framed his duet with Ms. Murphy, extra clear and strong."
  
• Pillar of Fire, New York Times, 5/14/04: "Gillian Murphy's Hagar appeared so tense and emotionally stifled that she seemed ready to explode."
  
• Don Quixote, Toronto Globe and Mail, 4/27/04: "The strong and assured Gillian Murphy ate up the stage with Stiefel..."
  
• A Tribute to George Harrison, Toronto Star, 4/27/04: "On this occasion those stars included Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel of American Ballet Theatre, coitally passionate to the faux-Indian music of George Harrison in Natalie Weir's Within You Without You.
  
• Swan Lake, Chicago Tribune, 3/28/04: "Murphy, a young but rising ballerina, moves with a glistening lyrical poetry as Odette and almost literally transforms into another woman as Odile, all of it encased in sublime technical capability."
  
• Pillar of Fire, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 3/13/04: "In Thursday night's cast, Gillian Murphy powerfully expressed the anguish of the central character."
  
• Pillar of Fire, Ohio Beacon Journal, 3/13/04: "As the middle sister Hagar, stuck between a spinster and a flirt...Gillian Murphy embodied repressed longing in every movement."
  
• Interview, Ohio Beacon Journal, 3/13/04: "'I've been very fortunate and I'm very happy,' Murphy said. 'It's also a constant challenge with the repertoire. It's very diverse.'"
  
• Sechs Tänze, Village Voice, 11/11/03: "Performing maladroitness at these speeds demands and gets extraordinary virtuosity from...Gillian Murphy."
  
• A Tribute to George Harrison, Associated Press, 11/10/03: "a love trio, danced happily by Gillian Murphy -- radiant in bright red -- with Ethan Stiefel and Herman Cornejo."
  
• Fancy Free, New York Times, 10/31/03: "Gillian Murphy was compelling in her sexy innocence."
  
• Workwithinwork, New York Times, 10/27/03: "Gillian Murphy and Ashley Tuttle move quietly into a rather conventional duet."
  
• Pillar of Fire, New York Post, 10/27/03: "The crisp new production...is given with dramatic drive by Gillian Murphy - finely tense in Nora Kaye's old role as Hagar."
  
• Pillar of Fire, New York Times, 10/25/03: "The revival's first cast was led with exceptional understanding. Gillian Murphy as Hagar, the repressed heroine, knew that a Tudor dancer emotes through movement, not the face, and much of her impact came through sheer muscular power, especially in her space-devouring leaps...The beauty of Ms. Murphy's performance was in its contrast, between her dazed outcast and a desperate but not hysterical woman whose emotions visibly surge through her body."
  
• Pillar of Fire, Newark Star-Ledger, 10/25/03: "A first-rate cast starring Gillian Murphy as Hagar, a young woman who fears she will never know love. Stepping into the role with physical and dramatic authority, Murphy distinguishes herself as the latest in a line of celebrated Tudor ballerinas at ABT."
  
• Diana and Acteon, Associated Press, 10/24/03: "But the cheers really came for the first-act closer, the crowd-pleasing pas de deux and coda from ``Diana and Acteon,'' featuring two of ABT's most exciting dancers, Jose Manuel Carreno and Gillian Murphy...The statuesque Murphy, for her part, twirled her way across the stage during the 10-minute piece, leaving no doubt that she is the company's champion turner."
  
• Diana and Acteon, New York Times, 10/24/03: "Excellently danced by Gillian Murphy and José Manuel Carreño."
  
• Swan Lake, Washington Times, 6/27/03: "The iconic role of Odette-Odile [was] danced by the extraordinary young ballerina Gillian Murphy...Miss Murphy is a dancer with refined technique and a sensitive response to music. Few dancers are equally at home in the lyrical demands of Act II and the bravura challenges of Act III, but Miss Murphy gave enthralling performances in each. As Odette, she moved with creamy but cool grace, and as Odile, she triumphed in its technical demands, tossing off fouettes and triple turns with an easy flourish."
  
• Swan Lake, New York Times, 6/22/03: "In the evening performance Gillian Murphy was a brilliant Odette-Odile in exciting bravura dancing. Her Odette was almost demented in her birdlike push and flutter."
  
• Don Quixote, New York Times 6/5/03: "Gillian Murphy was a sharp and vivacious Kitri, capable of high kicks and deep backbends. Ethan Stiefel made Basil a prankish chap. His variations had bravura, and both he and Ms. Murphy whirled dizzily through the coda of the final pas de deux."
  
• Summer Met season, Village Voice 5/28/03: "The power of attraction [has] shifted to ABT, with its warmer performing style, its growing complement of male virtuosi, [and] its recent cultivation of tall, fresh, and athletic "American Girl" ballerinas (Gillian Murphy, Michelle Wiles)".
  
• La Fille Mal Gardée, New York Times 5/27/03: "Ms. Murphy, beautifully detailed in her footwork, and Mr. Stiefel were more in harmony and wonderfully playful."
  
• Diana and Acteon, New York Times 5/14/03: An "enjoyable silly showpiece."
  
• La Bayadere, New York Times 5/13/03: "Sex was in the air, and Ms. Murphy's fire-and-ice Gamzatti was on the same wave length."
  
• Diana and Acteon, Newark Star-Ledger, 5/12/03: "Jose Manuel Carreno achieved classical perfection...while his ballerina, Gillian Murphy, showed off her extraordinary pirouettes."
• Diana and Acteon, New York Times 5/7/03: "Ms. Herrera and Gillian Murphy are the company's champion turners among the women, as their fouettés showed again."
  
• Giselle, Boston Phoenix 11/21/02: "The Myrtha on opening night, Gillian Murphy, can only be called sublime. Murphy is tall and red-haired, pale and implacable. She materialized with a series of pas de bourree — tiny, rapid sidesteps across the stage, so light and smooth she might really be a shadow. She circled regally in arabesque, invoking whatever evil magic Wilis use to possess a space, and then, with the most chilling gestures, commanded her subjects to rise from the ground for their nightly ritual."
  
• Giselle, Beacon Journal 11/01/02: "As the young women's leader, Myrta, Gillian Murphy danced with an understated but clear imperiousness. Murphy is a compelling performer."
  
• Harrison, Classique, New York Times 10/30/02: "A final salute goes to...Ms. Murphy and David Hallberg, both splendid and new this season in "Grand Pas Classique."
  
• Symphony in C, New York Times 10/22/02: "Gillian Murphy was authoritative and glamorous in the opening movement"
  Harrison, New York Times 10/21/02: "a beautifully danced convoluted embrace."
  
• Symph. in C, Harrison Explore Dance 10/20/02: "As always, Ms. Murphy achieves height, poised balances, and instantaneous pirouettes...Gillian Murphy's effective foot contraction was a poignant moment of contact between dancer and audience."
  
• Fancy Free 10/19/02: "a fetching if slightly immature cast of women: Paloma Herrera, Gillian Murphy and Alina Faye."
  
• Grand Pas Classique, Explore Dance 10/16/02: "Ms. Murphy appeared confident and balanced, with intricate footwork and the full stage available for this duet. Ms. Murphy's multitudinous pirouettes were flawless."
  
• Le Corsaire, Los Angeles Times 7/13/02: "Gillian Murphy hopped on her pointes with toes of steel"
  
• Swan Lake, New York Times 7/8/02: "Gillian Murphy followed up her outstanding debut of last year as Odette-Odile with an amazingly fresh performance...[she] has created a vivid link between Odette, Siegfried's ideal, and Odile, her evil imposter. Her young swan queen foreshadows Odile's dynamism, and she is especially agitated in her first encounter with the prince. Ms. Murphy and Mr. Carreño knew how to build their performance into increasing dramatic intensity. Starting at a high-energy peak, Ms. Murphy channeled her dynamics into a sharply molded adagio without losing any degree of lyricism as Odette. Stunningly, she sculptured her body into a flow of ever-changing form. It was not a formal display but dancing with a heightened evocation of sorrow, part of an unfolding love story. Ms. Murphy's added detail of bending an arm across her chest became a leitmotif. Her Odette has more depth of feeling than her Odile. But then Odile is often allowed to seduce both the audience and Siegfried by technique alone. Ms. Murphy did not disappoint her fans, adding triple turns to her fouettés in the ballroom scene."
  
• La Fille Mal Gardée, New York Times, 6/6/02: "Ms. Murphy looked so vigorous that one feared that her dancing might become brusque, rather than brisk. But as she skimmed rapidly across the stage, she endowed Lise with irrepressible high spirits. This was a quick-witted no-nonsense Lise. In the cornfield scene, Ms. Murphy's Lise obviously had fun eluding her unwanted bumbling suitor, Alain, and reuniting herself with Colas. She also had fun in the long mimed solo in which Lise takes delight in imagining the joys of marriage and motherhood."
• Swan Lake. Ballet Magazine 8/13/01: "a young soloist Gillian Murphy made a promising debut in the Swan Queen."
  
• Swan Lake 6/23/01: "As Odette, Ms. Murphy was perfect, her body stretched to the utmost, a model of clarity and phrasing. Her Odile enlarged on this streamlined glamour with a fire and ice aloofness that visibly aroused her Siegfried. She has always excelled in multiple turns, and her technical security allowed her movements to flow out of the choreography's many pirouettes."
  
• Theme & Variations, Ballet Alert 4/11/01: "Gillian Murphy is the company's Girl Next Likely, and her Theme was beautifully danced: crisp and strong and light."
  
• Black Tuesday, The Eagle, 4/9/01: "Murphy had such amazing control of her movements and expression that every arabesque seemed to be an extension of her character’s loss of hope."
  
• Black Swan Pas de Deux, New York Times 11/2/00: "a stunning debut...Ms. Murphy could have triumphed through technique alone, so perfect were her double turns in attitude position and triple pirouettes and fouettés. Where others falter, she is flawless...Ms. Murphy's golden-girl performance was a model of coherence."
• Etudes, Wall Street Journal 10/16/00: "Ms. Murphy commanded the central position with her unfailingly dreamy quality, part the result of her unaffected, blissful facial expressions, and partly due to the rock-steady balance fortifying her miraculously vertiginous turns and her sailing jumps."
• Diversion of Angels, Theme and Variations Ballet Magazine 10/15/00: As the white girl, the extremely talented Gillian Murphy danced with a fresh purity that was so ravishing...[in Themes, she] danced expressively with sharp legwork."
  
• Swan Lake, Ballet Magazine 5/4/00: "The dancing of the rest of the company particularly Gillian Murphy in the pas de trois was technically very competent."
  
• Giselle, Wall Street Journal 7/14/99: "19-year-old Gillian Murphy arrived like some 'beautiful unknown' in a classic myth...Ms. Murphy took all she was given for all she was worth. Part of the blue-eyed, blond-haired young woman's riveting appeal is her almost impassive demeanor. This serenity makes her formidable power and precision all the more striking. Her large, sharply tapered feet possess astonishing spring, while her tiny-waisted and fluid upper body embellishes her every second onstage, whether in mighty jumps, vertiginous turns, or breathtaking repose...If only a choreographer up to the task could fashion a multiact ballet just for Ms. Murphy, ABT would have a "big" ballet more than worthy of the name."
  
• Le Corsaire, New York Times 5/10/99: "Ms. Murphy's series of triple fouettes in Act I, while travelling on a diagonal, is not your everyday feat. Nor did she do them as a circus trick, isolated from the rest of the choreography...Her solos and her duet with Keith Roberts in the 'Pas d'Esclave' were models of clear classical form where all the steps are given full value."
  
• La Bayadere, Ballet Alert ?/99: "The young Gillian Murphy has made her name as a turner, and in the betrothal scene she seemed to do fouettés as was most people breathe [sic]. But her Gamzatti was no mere dancing machine. She played her with a vicious petulance, rather like the young Angela Lansbury...it was an astounding debut."
  
• The Nutcracker, Showmag 12/98: "Gillian Murphy danced the role of the Snow Queen with lighting speed and icy precision. She is a dancer of exceptional ability who is a pleasure to watch. In this all-too-brief role Miss Murphy, however, is only able to whet our appetite for more of her marvelous dancing."
  
• Le Corsaire, New York Times 6/98: "The jewel-like pas de trois...featured Gillian Murphy, a corps member who brought the house down on Saturday night with her triple and quadruple pirouettes as well as her astonishingly precise leg beats."
  

Additional Articles

• Beyond Bravura, Dance Magazine, November 2009: "Nevertheless there has been an awakening, a deepening in her artistry that has caught up with her astonishing technique. As more emotionally charged roles come her way, Murphy has surprised many and drawn rave reviews for her acting in ABT's most somber and sinister ballets. As Hagar, the repressed middle sister in Tudor's dour drama Pillar of Fire, Murphy is riveting. Her body and facial expressions are taut until her pent up passion erupts with the Stranger Next Door. Murphy's ax-wielding Lizzie Borden (the Accused) in de Mille's Fall River Legend skulks and rages, negotiating the emotional curves down to the essence. Her intensity shocked everyone--even herself."
  
• Humbly at the top of her game, The Daily Yomimuri, 6/10/08: "Murphy's future looks bright. 'I've achieved so much already, but being a ballerina means that the technique is the foundation. I am constantly striving to learn how to convey emotions, the sensitivity of the music, characters. I'm traveling around doing what I love to do. Expressing myself through the art form is a constant endeavor, challenging but fulfilling.'"
  
• Dance for the Dean, Winston-Salem Journal, 10/7/07: "'She (McCullough) was there to explain,' Murphy said. 'That made all the difference. A contract is not everything. She and I both felt strongly about my having a high-school diploma.'"
  
• Petit Paw, Playbill Arts, 6/18/07: "Principal Dancers Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel's feline, Selah, for instance, is infamous for her reaction to phone calls when home alone: She leaps atop the answering machine and--accidentally or intentionally--pushes the button that abruptly cuts off the caller. Stiefel loyally insists she is intrigued by the voice, not bored by the message."
  
• Making Gains in Dance's Wisp-Only World, Los Angeles Times, 6/10/07: "ABT principal Gillian Murphy...believes that the hallmark of today's great dancers is their versatility — the power to perform more modern repertory as well as romantic, sylph-like roles. 'That means you don't have to be a sticks-and-bones Titania — that's not in anymore,' she says. 'You can be a slightly voluptuous one. I think there's a consciousness throughout our culture about being healthy and lean,' Murphy adds. 'Dancers today don't need to starve themselves, and they're not, as far as I know. It's a visual art form, so it's pleasing to see real people moving in beautiful, powerful and delicate ways.'"
  
• Barre Side Chats: Interview with Gillian Murphy, DanceArt.Com, 6/06: "In kindergarten, I'd walk around on pointe in my sneakers, and my parents began to wonder why my shoes were always so worn out. I started dancing around the house all the time, doing ballet steps. It just seemed the normal thing to do. I wanted to be either a ballerina, or a marathon runner, or a doctor."
  
• Cinderella grows up, New York Newsday, 6/4/06: "If Gillian Murphy's legions of admirers are an anomaly among the throngs of man-fans, it's not because she's a throwback. The ABT principal dancer, who has risen through the company ranks during the past decade, has seized new terrain. Her steps are as sharp and crisp as any man's, and her technique mind-bogglingly virtuosic. When she takes the endurance test of 32 fouettés in "Swan Lake," she executes triple pirouettes in between the whip-turns. And she does not assume the usual feminine postures of elusiveness, mystery, coquettishness or reckless abandon."
  
• Master Class, New York Times, 10/23/05: Ms. Parkinson also coaches the young principal Gillian Murphy. "She's my child," Ms. Parkinson said. "I hardly ever look at her legs and feet. What is there to say, really? But in teaching her how to express herself with her body is where she's come along in leaps and bounds."
• Swans Up Close, New York Times, 6/19/05: "RULE 1: Don't grab. Small gestures establish a tone. 'We really worked on texture," Ms. Murphy said. "You see it in the way that Angel offers his hand, and the way that I take it.' In the final act, she noted: 'He reaches out to me very tenderly. Siegfried and Odette only have a short time left. It should feel like someone is dying, and these are your last minutes with them.'"
• One Skirt Stands Out, Los Angeles Times, 6/10/05: "'I love dancing in a tutu,' says ABT principal Gillian Murphy, the production's Swan Queen. 'If it's light and beautiful, it creates part of the magic.'"
• A Princess Among Men, Los Angeles Times, 4/24/2005: "There's something very honest about Gillian, and she's so smart. You can feed in the information and she processes it all for herself. She doesn't look like someone trying to be anyone else...Murphy brings a healthy sense of perspective and clarity to what being a dancer means. 'The first time I put pointe shoes on, I was certain. I've been on a mission, in terms of wanting to dance and to be the best dancer I can be. At a certain point in a dancer's career, it becomes a mission to look out for the art form as well, to concern yourself with the present and future of ballet.'
• Star-Spangled Couple, Dance Magazine, 2005: "As Murphy and Stiefel rehearse William Forsythe's idiosyncratic workwithinwork, it's clear that they each have their own perspective on how to get the job done. Watching Murphy assimilate style, process corrections, and absorb dramatic interpretation suggests that her mind works like a computer -- efficient and effective. She knows what she needs to accomplish at every rehearsal -- and does."
• The Ballerinas - A Swan Song?, Tutu Review, 2001: "ABT's rising generation — a cornucopia of talent — is headed at the moment by the stunning Gillian Murphy, all regal authority and confident technique."
• Who's that Girl with the Triple Pirouettes?, Wall Street Journal, 12/21/99: "If ballet's fine art had the same play on televison as the sport of figure skating, Ms. Murphy's 'quads' would be as talked about as any multiple rotations by Tara Lipinsky or Michelle Kwan. But Gillian Murphy...is a budding artist, not a go-for-broke athlete."
• Murphy on Tap, Time Out: New York 1998: "ABT's Gillian Murphy is mere pirouettes away from being ballet's newest star...As the season has progressed, her crystalline technique, coupled with an innate sense of the dramatic, has earned her ever greater exposure."
  
  
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