2015 Tanja Liedtke Fellowship winner named

The Tanja Liedtke Foundation has named South Australian dancer and choreographer Gabrielle Nankivell as the winner of the 2015 Tanja Liedtke Fellowship. Building on her extensive career as a dancer in Australia and Europe, Nankivell is beginning to establish herself as a choreographer with her recent work Wildebeest being presented in 2014 by Sydney Dance Company as part of its “New Breed” season.

Gerlinde Liedtke, chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, said, “We are delighted to award the 2015 Tanja Liedtke Fellowship to Gabrielle. She is a remarkable artist – unafraid of challenge, totally committed to finding new levels of excellence in her craft, and at the same time, very generous and respectful in the way she collaborates with other artists.”

Nankivell was chosen by the Board of Trustees from an exceptional field of candidates from all over Australia. This bi-annual award has now been presented four times since it was initiated in 2009. It honours dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke, who at the time of her tragic death from a road accident was the Sydney Dance Company artistic director designate.

The program includes a three-week creative residency at adaStudio in Berlin, where Nankivell will work with two Europe-based dance artists and have the chance to show her work to an invited audience. The residency coincides with Berlin’s international contemporary dance festival Tanz in August.

After her stay in Berlin, Nankivell will travel to Frankfurt where she will take up a place in the Summer Lab at Tanzlabor_21, Frankfurt’s central hub for independent contemporary dance theatre.

“I am so delighted to receive this wonderful opportunity to explore and create, supported by and representing a Foundation whose vision I wholeheartedly share,” said Nankivell. “I’m also looking forward to the invigorating environment of artistic and cultural exchange in Germany. I thank the Foundation’s Board of Trustees for giving me the opportunity to represent Australian dance practice through this unique fellowship program. I can’t wait to see the results of this upcoming adventure unfold.”

Nankivell follows previous Fellowship winners Antony Hamilton (2009), Katarzyna Sitarz (2011) and Joseph Simons (2013) in winning this prestigious award.

Photos: Gabrielle Nankivell. Photo on left by Chris Herzfeld.