Tanja Liedtke- INTERVIEWS

SELECTED 'interviews' ARCHIVE POSTING

Tanja Liedtke


Twelfth Floor - May 2006

„Human behaviour is a bizarre jumble of affection and

hostility, greed and generosity, violence and

gentleness."(J.A. Haught)

“Twelfth Floor is a landscape in which we become confined observers. Sometimes searching for exits, sometimes happy to remain.” (Tanja Liedtke) 

Way back when, was there a moment, a person, an

event when you knew deep down you were called to dance?

My family moved to Madrid in 1980 – five years after the death of dictator Franco and in the midst of a huge social shift to a liberal democratic nation. It was a very important and vibrant time for Spain, and Madrid as the cultural capital in particular.

People were re-discovering their freedom of expression, they felt liberated and a new wave of artists emerged. 

As a result music and dance was apparent everywhere – I have memories of friends and neighbours at parties, festivals, in the streets, spontaneously dancing. I think I concluded that people who have a good time dance.

We spent eight years living in Madrid and during that time I started Ballet and Flamenco lessons. I recollect going to see the National Ballet dancing The Waltz of The Flowers – it was amazing to see dance in a theatre for the first time, I was blown away, from then on I wanted to be a flower in a tutu.

As I gained confidence through the dance lessons I started talking my friends into coming to my place to put on dance shows for our parents... Most of them had never had any form of training, but they were up for it all - it was great fun.

Tanja - what, who, where inspired Twelfth Floor?

I created Twelfth Floor with the five performers over a period of two months, whilst on a Fellowship at the Australian Choreographic Centre in Canberra. We all agreed to spend the creative process immersed in each others company 24/7, this meant working and living in together. 

There are not many distractions in Canberra so we were very confined in a sense. And thus the subject matter came about – human interaction in confinement. The concept of confinement is one I think we can all relate to, we all find ourselves constrained – whether it’s in our jobs, a relationship, the political environment, or within our own bodies.