Finally: a new boss for Sydney Dance Company
Graeme Murphy, outgoing founding artistic director of Sydney Dance Company says "The board has made an excellent choice. Someone on the cusp of a really interesting career - someone young, who will grow in the role in the way that I had the chance to grow in the role from a young age. What is going to emerge from this will be a new era in dance, which is as it should be. A new adventure is about to unfold."
Murphy was referring to the announcement (May 3) of "German born" Tanja Liedtke to the top job at Sydney Dance Company.
Virtually unknown outside the Australian dance community, Liedtke is a graduate of London's Ballet Rambert School, came to Sydney in 1996 and was a member of Australian Dance Theatre for four years. In 2003 she joined DV8 Physical Theatre, "Australian born" Lloyd Newson’s fabled company performing across Europe in The Cost of Living and Just for Show.
Liedtke has also been developing a tandem career as a choreographer and was noticed by Dance Australia’s annual awards in 1999 and 2000 as "most promising choreographer". She has made works for, among others, Tasdance, De Anima Ballet Contemporaneo (Brazil); Akademie des Tanzes (Germany); Taipei Idea (Taiwan); and David Hughes Dance Company (Scotland).
Liedtke’s first full-length work Twelfth Floor was a critical and popular success in 2005-6 and was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Choreography at the Australian Dance Awards. She declared herself "absolutely ecstatic" at being given the job - held by Murphy in association with Janet Vernon since 1976.
Liedtke's latest work, CONSTRUCT, will be seen for the first time at the South Bank Centre, London on May 11.
