"Hopes struck down – Dreams re-Construct-ed"...from the Liedtke family

We, the friends and family, will remember a 10-month old Tanja standing on her little stumpy legs for the first time. The arts world will remember her dancing on stage with those same legs, now long and slender.
We will remember a one-year old birthday child with curly brown hair holding a little coloured ball between her fingers. The arts world will remember those same long limbs gracefully moving through the air describing her vision for the next scene.
We will remember a lively six-year old directing her friends to private shows at home. The world will remember her brilliant choreography of understandable modern dance performances.
And all of us could leave it at that – memories of the past, pictures from by-gone years, articles about her success and tragic death in fading newspapers - hopes of what might have been.

Or we could take those pieces and reconstruct new dreams into a world without Tanja, the person, but a world reflecting her vision.

For Tanja, Modern dance was meant for all of us. It was to communicate a message, which the casual theatregoer could understand. In her early pieces, such as “Forever You”, the topics were of love and relationships. As she matured, the messages became statements, bolder almost forceful. First in the highly acclaimed “Twelfth Floor” where she analysed group behaviour in a closed space. Followed by “Construct” where she spoke about building and destruction of career, home and family. Her next piece would have tackled the environment. Seeking inspiration for this piece, she attended Bangarra Dance Theatre performing “True Stories” at the Opera House. Returning late and full of new ideas, she turned to her usual place for reflection. Walking along the dark and abandoned streets of her favourite city, Sydney, her mind was integrating those ideas into her vision for an understandable yet complex piece on the environment. Perhaps fate, perhaps consciously wanting to connect to her professional beginnings in Australia, her steps were leading her towards the studio where she trained with her admired teacher – Tanya Pearson. Here, her vision ended.

We dream that the dance world takes this vision around the world and reconstructs it in her name.

For us, family and friends, we will take her patience, generosity and love to pass it to the next generation as best we can so that they can dream as much of Tanja as we had hoped for.