Australia Dancing - Liedtke, Tanja (1977

Liedtke, Tanja (1977 - 2007)

Symons, Ben: Portrait of Tanja Liedtke with the Sydney Opera House in the background, ca. 2007

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Tanja Liedtke moved as a child with her family to Spain and began dance lessons in Madrid at the age of ten. She went on to train in England at Elmhurst Ballet School and the Ballet Rambert School from which she graduated before moving to Australia in 1996, continuing her training with Tanya Pearson in Sydney.

In 1999, Liedtke joined Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) where she created roles and performed in works including Birdbrain and The Age of Unbeauty. Her choreographic talent was nurtured by artistic director Garry Stewart, and her works Forever You (1999) and To My Suite (2000), created for the ADT Ignition Seasons, were both listed as critics' choices in Dance Australia magazine for most promising choreography. In 2002 Liedtke was awarded an Emerging Artists Initiative grant from the Australia Council Theatre Board to explore multi-media, text and dance in performance, resulting in the work Endstation Wunderkind.

In 2003 Liedtke joined Lloyd Newson's DV8 Physical Theatre in London. As a member of DV8 she performed and toured in Newson’s internationally acclaimed The Cost of Living, which would become an award winning Channel 4 film. In 2005 she returned to the company to perform a leading role in the international touring production of Newson’s Just for Show.

In tandem with her success as a performer, Liedtke pursued her choreographic career. She was commissioned to create works in Germany (Angels Fallen for Akademie des Tanzes in Mannheim), Brazil (To My Suite and Forever You for De Anima Ballet Contemporaneo) and Taiwan, as well as two works for Tasdance (Enter Twilight and Always Building). In 2006 she returned to Australia to develop her first full-length work Twelfth Floor, a piece originally presented at the Australian Choreographic Centre in 2004 following a choreographic fellowship. Twelfth Floor received wide critical acclaim, and won the 2006 Australian Dance Award for outstanding choreography.

In 2007, two of Liedtke's works premiered internationally to critical aclaim. Construct opened on May 11 at London's Southbank Centre, performed by Liedtke with Kristina Chan and Paul White, and was proclaimed a 'small-scale marvel' by the Times. The following day, David Hughes Dance Company premiered her Imploded at the Traverse theatre in Edinburgh. In the same month, it was announced that Liedtke had been appointed artistic director of Sydney Dance Company, selected from 54 applicants as the successor of Graeme Murphy. Liedtke died following a road accident in Sydney prior to taking up this appointment.

In 2008, Liedtke's memory was honoured in a number of ways. Construct received its Australian premiere in January, staged for the Sydney Festival by her partner Solon Ulbrich, and won the 2008 Helpmann award for best choreography in a dance or physical theatre production. In June, the Australian Dance Awards ceremony featured a tribute to Liedtke, presented by Ulbrich, and in July the Tanja Liedtke Foundation was established in her honour. At the 2009 Australian Dance Awards Liedtke was again honoured posthumously, winning the awards for outstanding achievement in choreography and outstanding achievement in independent dance, both for Construct. Christina Chan's performance in this work earned her the 2009 Australian Dance Award for outstanding performance by a female dancer.

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