Newsletter – Tanja Liedtke Foundation
September 2016

Dear Supporter,

Following on from our previous newsletter here is an update on our two most recent Tanja Liedtke Fellows

Joseph Simons (Tanja Liedtke Fellow 2013) and Gabrielle Nankivell (Tanja Liedtke Fellow 2015).

2013 Tanja Liedtke Fellow – Joseph Simons

“Winning the Tanja Liedtke Fellowship in 2013 was a significant turning point for me. That sounds melodramatic - but looking at the sequence of events, it’s actually quite true. It was the beginning of a transformation of my career from company dancer to individual theatre-maker and performer. First Things First, the solo I began developing with the Ufer Studios residency in Berlin, has become a full-length work that has been performed in New York, Singapore and on a three month, 26-venue tour around Australia. First Things First has also gained me an international manager, who now promotes my work worldwide.  

It took the trust and generosity of Gerlinde and Kurt Liedtke, and the Tanka Liedtke Foundation to set me on this path. Their belief in me has been unwavering, even when I considered myself to be a bit of a wild card in the application process. It is with great pride I have the Liedtke name in my bio, and I’m particularly proud to be involved in a show that began with the Tanja Liedtke Fellowship, and continues to tour three years after it’s creation. 

Now, I’m in the very early stages of creating another one-man show, while exciting international opportunities are in the pipeline for First Things First. I continue to work as an actor, director, physical theatre performer, guest dancer and dramaturg for a range of different companies and projects”.  

Joseph Simons, 2016.

2015 Tanja Liedtke Fellow – Gabrielle Nankivell.

"Being awarded the Tanja Liedtke Fellowship in 2015 offered me the time and breathing space to investigate a completely different line of choreographic research within my practice. Discoveries and questions that arose during my time in Berlin at ada Studios continue to permeate my work. I’m intrigued by the impact of our lived history on both our imagination and our experience of time. Contextually this ties ideas of the body as a document and the artist/audience as documentarian. The Fellowship provided the platform for me to explore my history with Berlin and to reconnect, through practice, with artists Raul Maia and Laurie Young. It also put down the roots of Ghosts of Berlin, a performance project I plan to return to in the near future.

2016 is unfolding as a creatively intriguing and hugely generative year! I’m lucky to be working in a number of different roles with some great artists across quite varied projects. Performances that hit the stage this year include new works for Tasdance, Frontier Danceland Singapore and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. Wildebeest (2014) will also get to stretch its legs again as part of Sydney Dance Company’s Untamed double bill in October. Girl Asleep, an Australian feature film I worked on as choreographer/movement director, opens nationally this month. Also on the worktable is a two-part research lab and creative development in Adelaide for my new work Split Second Heroes. So far this year I’ve also had the pleasure performing with The Farm at Bleach* Festival and Victoria Chiu in the development of her new work in Shanghai”.    

Gabrielle Nankivell, 2016.

The program for the 2017 Tanja Liedtke Fellowship will be announced soon with applications opening mid to late October 2016. 

Warm wishes, TLF

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