Australia Dancing - Walker, Kim (1960

Walker, Kim (1960 - )

McMurdo, Don: Kim Walker with Mary Duchesne (left) and Janet Vernon (right) in 'Homelands', Sydney Dance Company, 1982

Kim Walker's earliest dance experiences were in Sydney with his adoptive mother, Australian folk dance icon Margaret Walker. Walker's heritage is Caucasian and West Indian. As a teenager he was ceremonially adopted by the family of fellow student and friend Phillip Langley from Mornington Island and was one of the early graduates of the Careers in Dance training course for Aboriginal and Islander students initiated in 1975 by the Aboriginal Arts Board. Walker was a member of the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, the performing arm of the Careers in Dance course, and went on to a successful dance career with the Sydney Dance Company from 1980 to 1990. He became a prominent and popular artist and performed leading roles in works created by artistic director Graeme Murphy such as Homelands, Daphnis and Chloe, After Venice, Boxes and Kraanerg.

During his years with Sydney Dance Company he studied with a number of other companies, including the Ailey School attached to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York.

Walker's choreographic career began with the Sydney Dance Company, for which he created Cafe in 1989, Before the Word in 1991 and Monkey See in 1992. He has choreographed for a number of major companies and directors in Australia including Opera Australia, Melbourne and Sydney Theatre Companies, Richard Wherrett, Neil Armfield, Wayne Harrison and Roger Hodgman, as well as television commercials, musicals, corporate and charity launches and music video clips.

In1998 Walker was appointed artistic director of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus based in Albury-Wodonga. During this appointment he created numerous works for the company and organised successful national and international tours. In late 2007, he was appointed CEO/Head of Dance at the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association, NAISDA, the organisation that evolved from the Careers in Dance course from which Walker had graduated almost thirty years earlier.

Walker has served as a member of the Theatre Board of the Australia Council, the Dance Committee of the NSW Ministry for the Arts, and the HotHouse Theatre Artistic Directorate. In 1991 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award for his individual contribution to the arts.

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