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This page is a space for friends, family and fans of Tanja Liedtke to share messages, support, stories, memories, photos, quotes and notices but ultimately LOVE. Tanja has spread her light, love and talent right across the globe and we are all so much richer for having known her!
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When I was briefly in Manchester, England I wound up at a cabaret dance where this red headed woman gave me a card to a contemporary dance performance at the uni. I promised her that I would go and we talked a little, before she left.
Later the next day I had to convince my buddy Anton to go to the uni for the show. I had promised her that I would, so I made it my business to go. I had always wanted to explore dance and see what it was like and now in England I had my chance.
When we got there they were giving out wine. Wonderful wine, and we grabbed some and settled down. I have yet to forget that show. Construct. The way they moved, the building and the destruction on stage, the freeness, the lightness of the performers. It was amazing. She radiated on stage. It was a beauty I wanted to capture on film. But not just beauty. There was a great power to her movements and presence. A truly special person. Right away you could tell this. Above all else, she was significant.
Afterward I waited around to speak to her. When I finally got a chance we talked about me being able to photograph her dance company in Australia, and the dance photographer Lois Greenfield. She also mentioned her upcoming performances in NYC, at the Joyce. I told her I would go, as I live there. Then she went to dinner.
We exchanged exactly two emails. One from me one from her. Her email ending with "do keep in touch, and hopefully see you in Australia or NYC". Two months later she was gone.
To lose an artist before they hit their peak is the greatest crime that fate commits. And I am haunted by this missed meeting in September. Haunted by the missing steps of her feet on the stage. I was completely mesmerized in Manchester. It affected me, it opened up a brand new dialogue in my artistic adventures. the idea of movement, of dance. A world that had seemed closed, or non existent before. All because of a chance meeting in a small venue in Manchester. I can only imagine what it was like to know Tanja for longer than a day.
Today on the way to a new darkroom I passed by the Dance Workshop in chelsea. I went in on the way home. And when I started talking to the people behind the desk I was overcome with such emotion, such sadness. and when I walked out and down the street I realized how close I was to the Joyce theatre. Standing there realizing that, i felt incredibly sad. She would have been great.
Ari
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