Murphy began dancing at the age of four. His father, an Irish Born Belfast man taught him the basics and when he started showing interest, he began to study Irish Dance at the Desmond Penrose School of Irish Dance.In his early teens he attended a concert by Martha Graham Dance Company and fell in love with modern dance.

At the age of 18, Irish dance took a back seat to modern and he attended undergraduate school and later graduate school for dance. He received his undergraduate degree in dance from SUNY Brockport and an MA from the University of Arizona, and has performed with dance companies in Arizona, California, Washington and Albany and New York City. In 1986 he got back involved in Irish Dance took his TCRG, returned upstate New York and founded the Drumcliffe School of Irish Dance and the Drumcliffe Dance Project a contemporary Dance
company with Irish dance influences.

He is now a Professor of Dance at The State University of New York at Brockport and continues to teach Irish Dance. Some of his recent collaborations in Modern Dance have been with very renowned Modern choreographers Bill Evans, Sean Curran and Jamie Cunningham. Murphy believes “When the human body is in motion, if there is a spiritual flow, ease, passion and expression present, it is dance. To me that separates a dancer from the athlete”.