NEWS
Tanja Liedtke Foundation Fellowship 2026 Announcement
We are pleased to announce the Open Call for the Tanja Liedtke Foundation Fellowship 2026, a unique opportunity for an emerging dance-theatre artist based in Europe. This fellowship takes a new form compared to previous formats, offering the recipient the freedom to design their own artistic journey, with available funds of up to €10,000 to explore new ideas and directions in their practice. The focus is on personal exploration and creative expression, with the option to engage in mentorships, workshops, and collaborations with established artists and organisations. Applications open on September 5th and close on November 14th, 2025.
Visit the following page for more information and instructions on how to apply…
Resonance – by James Batchelor – World Premiere
Resonance by James Batchelor and Collaborators unites three generations of Australian dancers in a moving celebration of memory, connection, and reinvention.
At its heart is a conversation between past and present, as Batchelor’s meditative choreographic style engages in a curious dialogue with the legacy of Tanja Liedtke – a rising star in the Australian dance scene whose life was tragically cut short in 2007, on the eve of her ground-breaking appointment as Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company.
Featuring dancers who worked closely with Liedtke and an intergenerational cast, including local guest dancers in each city it tours to, Resonance honours the dancer’s body as a living archive. It becomes an intimate act of choreographic transmission – one that celebrates dance as a language of friendship, transformation, and enduring connection.
Sydney, September 25 – 27
The Substation / Melbourne Fringe
Melbourne, October 1-4
Canberra, October 10-11
Fates Intertwined: Transforming Liedtke’s Archive
James Batchelor
Tanja Liedtke made lasting impressions on audiences with her magnetic charisma, clarity in dramaturgical vision and virtuosic skill as a performer and choreographer. In 2022, I was approached by the Tanja Liedtke Foundation to gauge my interest in leading a project that would deal with Tanja’s legacy, marking 15 years since her passing.
On face value, my work looks very different to Liedtke’s. Her work sat more in the genre of dance theatre; dealing with narratives and characterisation within crisply crafted movement sequences. My work is more like poetic meditation, gentle brushstrokes of movements, looping patterns, cultivating essences and energies. This meeting point proved to be a driving creative impetus in Resonance, a friction that produced surprising and exciting material. Starting from seeds of ideas planted by Tanja, or passed down memories from Amelia, Anton and Kristina, material evolved through choreographic intervention. Filtered through the aesthetic tastes and collaborative efforts of Leah, Chloe, Bek, Morgan – our instincts in transforming Tanja’s archive speak to the distance of then and now, Australia and Europe. It says as much about our similarities as our differences. Echoing Tanja might here be an invitation to look inward and ruminate on our place in this history, ultimately leaning towards who and where we are now in the present.
Screening & Talk: Goethe Institute
Sydney, Sep 17
Join us for a screening of Life in Movement directed by acclaimed Australian filmmakers Sophie Hyde and Bryan Mason, followed by a conversation with Resonance’s choreographer James Batchelor and dramaturg Bek Berger, who will offer insights into their creative process and Liedtke’s legacy.
Sydney, Sep 20
James Batchelor will introduce participants to the research and choreographic ideas behind the new work Resonance, premiering as part of IDEA’25. Following a brief introduction to the research and framing of the project, James will share choreographic improvised scores that offer expansive embodied investigations of history, memory and place.
Artistic Team
Lead Artist, Choreographer, Producer – James Batchelor
Dramaturg, Producer – Bek Berger
Composer – Morgan Hickinbotham
Performed and realised by: James Batchelor, Chloe Chignell, Leah Marojević
with Amelia McQueen, Anton, Kristina Chan, Theo Clinkard, Alice Heyward, Charlotte Macarthur, Emma Batchelor and dancers from Sydney Dance Company PPY, Victorian College of the Arts and QL2 Dance
Lighting Designer – Katie Sfetkidis
Lighting Assistant – Lara Gabor
Costume Designer – Theo Clinkard
Credits
Resonance has been generously supported by the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, supported by ACT Government through artsACT, Michael Adena & Joanne Daly, Keir Foundation, Initiative LUNA PARK e.V. as part of the project „LUNAPARK.Residenzstipendien“ funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, QL2 Dance, Canberra Theatre Centre New Works, Goethe Institut and our circle of friends via the Australian Cultural Fund.
Photos by Morgan Hickinbotham
Our world expressed through the theatre of dance.