NEWS

Applications Now Closed for Tanja Liedtke Fellowship 2026

We are excited to announce that the application period for the Tanja Liedtke Foundation Fellowship has officially closed! This year, we received an astounding number of applications, far surpassing previous years. We see this overwhelming response is a beautiful testament to the industry’s enthusiasm and desire to create, expand artistic skills, and embrace the open nature of our fellowship, which allows for flexible proposals with few restrictions on itineraries and activities.

As we move forward, our small foundation faces the significant task of reviewing over 150 applications. A shortlist of three candidates will be determined by our jury and announced by November 28th. Following this, a series of interviews will be conducted, with the successful fellow announced by December 12th.

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone for their interest. Each applicant will be notified of the outcome of their submissions.

Additionally, it has been an honour to engage with those who reached out during the application process for guidance, to discuss their proposals, and to seek answers to their questions. We are thrilled by the positive feedback and appreciation for the support provided.

Thank you for being a part of this process with us! We look forward to the exciting developments ahead.

Paul White, on behalf of the Tanja Liedtke Foundation. 

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.

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.

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