Meryl Tankard
Encyclopedia
Meryl Tankard is an Australia
n dance
r and choreographer
who has a wide national and international reputation.
Tankard's father served in the Royal Australian Air Force
and the family moved to various bases during her early years. She was born in Darwin, but had her first dance lessons in Melbourne. Several years later the family moved to Penang, Malaysia and was influenced by Malaysia's colour and ceremony. Later, living near Newcastle
, New South Wales
, Tankard took classes in Newcastle and then in Sydney before entering the Australian Ballet School in 1974.
Tankard's early successes as a performer came when she worked in Germany with Pina Bausch
and her Tanztheater Wuppertal between 1978 and 1984; Tankard was a principal artist and toured extensively. In 1980 she played the leading role in the movie Quackfurdonald Mit Lieben Gruss, filmed in Munich and Disneyland and screened on German television. In 1982 she co-wrote and performed in Sydney on the Wupper, a short film awarded the Gold Film Band at the 1983 Berlin Film Festival.
She then spent several years between Australia and Europe. In Europe she was a guest performer with Bausch's company partnered with Lindsay Kemp
. In Australia in 1984 she made Echo Point, and in 1986 worked on both Robyn Archer
's television production of The Pack of Women and in the television serial Dancing Daze, and she devised and directed Travelling Light. In 1988 she created her evening-length solo work Two Feet, which marked a major turning point in the creative collaboration she had established with photographer and visual artist Regis Lansac who created slide projections to accompany Two Feet and continued to develop this aspect of their collaboration.
In 1989 Tankard was offered the directorship of a small company in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, which she named the Meryl Tankard Company. Works in Canberra included Banshee (1989), VX18504 (1989), Nuti (1990), Kikimora (1990), Court of Flora (1990), Chants de mariage I and II (1991–1992), and Songs with Mara (1992). Tankard also revived Echo Point and Two Feet, collaborated with the theatre director Pierre Bokor on Circo (1991), created choreography for Opera Australia
's Death in Venice (1989), and made Sloth as part of Seven Deadly Sins - a program by seven contemporary Australian choreographers filmed for television by the Australian Broadcasting Commissiond in 1993.
She moved to Adelaide, South Australia as Director of Australian Dance Theatre
. Tankard reworked some of the pieces she had made in Canberra, but new works created in Adelaide included Furioso (1993), Aurora (1994), Possessed (1995), and Rasa (1996) made in collaboration with Padma Menon, Seulle (1997) and Inuk (1997). She also choreographed The Deep End (1996) for the Australian Ballet and Orphee et Euridyce for Opera Australia. Australian Dance Theatre (under Tankard's leadership) toured extensively world wide. It was the first Australian company to be invited to perform at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Other tours included the Aoyama theatre (Tokyo),Het Musik T.heater Amsterdam
Tankard left Adelaide in 1999 and began a career as a freelance choreographer. Her commissions have included: 1998 Bolero for the Lyon
Opera Ballet; 2000 The Beautiful Game for Andrew Lloyd Webber
; 2002 Merryland, a work for Netherlands
Dance Theatre 3; 2003 Wild Swans, a joint commission from the Australian Ballet and the Sydney Opera House
, an evening length work based on a Hans Christian Andersen
fairy story to a commissioned score
by Elena Kats-Chernin
with costumes by Angus Strathie
and visual design by Regis Lansac; by the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games to create Deep Sea Dreaming for the opening ceremony; by the New York
jewellery
house Tiffany & Co.
a short work to showcase the history of the pearl, at New York's Museum of National History in 2001; the Dalai Lama
and Disney for whom she choreographed Tarzan in 2006. In October 2003 her Pearl, an extended version of her Tiffany commission, was shown at the thirtieth birthday celebrations of the Sydney Opera House. In April 2004 she created a work, @North, for the Berlin Ballet as a double bill, called Metamorphosis, with Norwegian choreographer Ingun Bjornsgaard. In September 2004 her Petrouchka received its world premiere by NDT1 in The Hague
.
Tankard's choreography draws from classical ballet, steps that emerge during workshop processes, experimentation including the performers singing or performing acrobatic feats, and distinctly different dance styles.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
r and choreographer
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
who has a wide national and international reputation.
Tankard's father served in the Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
and the family moved to various bases during her early years. She was born in Darwin, but had her first dance lessons in Melbourne. Several years later the family moved to Penang, Malaysia and was influenced by Malaysia's colour and ceremony. Later, living near Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Tankard took classes in Newcastle and then in Sydney before entering the Australian Ballet School in 1974.
Career
Tankard's professional career began as a dancer with the Australian Ballet at the end of 1975. She also choreographed her first work, Birds behind Bars, for a choreographic workshop program, Dance Horizons, in 1977.Tankard's early successes as a performer came when she worked in Germany with Pina Bausch
Pina Bausch
Philippina "Pina" Bausch was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director...
and her Tanztheater Wuppertal between 1978 and 1984; Tankard was a principal artist and toured extensively. In 1980 she played the leading role in the movie Quackfurdonald Mit Lieben Gruss, filmed in Munich and Disneyland and screened on German television. In 1982 she co-wrote and performed in Sydney on the Wupper, a short film awarded the Gold Film Band at the 1983 Berlin Film Festival.
She then spent several years between Australia and Europe. In Europe she was a guest performer with Bausch's company partnered with Lindsay Kemp
Lindsay Kemp
Lindsay Kemp is a British dancer, actor, teacher, mime artist and choreographer.Born in South Shields on May 3, 1938, Kemp's father, a seaman, was lost at sea in 1940. According to Kemp, he danced from early childhood: "I'd dance on the kitchen table to entertain the neighbours. I mean, it was a...
. In Australia in 1984 she made Echo Point, and in 1986 worked on both Robyn Archer
Robyn Archer
Robyn Archer AO CdOAL is an Australian singer, writer, stage and director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts, in Australia and internationally.-Life:Archer was born Robyn Smith in Prospect, South Australia...
's television production of The Pack of Women and in the television serial Dancing Daze, and she devised and directed Travelling Light. In 1988 she created her evening-length solo work Two Feet, which marked a major turning point in the creative collaboration she had established with photographer and visual artist Regis Lansac who created slide projections to accompany Two Feet and continued to develop this aspect of their collaboration.
In 1989 Tankard was offered the directorship of a small company in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, which she named the Meryl Tankard Company. Works in Canberra included Banshee (1989), VX18504 (1989), Nuti (1990), Kikimora (1990), Court of Flora (1990), Chants de mariage I and II (1991–1992), and Songs with Mara (1992). Tankard also revived Echo Point and Two Feet, collaborated with the theatre director Pierre Bokor on Circo (1991), created choreography for Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
's Death in Venice (1989), and made Sloth as part of Seven Deadly Sins - a program by seven contemporary Australian choreographers filmed for television by the Australian Broadcasting Commissiond in 1993.
She moved to Adelaide, South Australia as Director of Australian Dance Theatre
Australian Dance Theatre
The Australian Dance Theatre is a contemporary dance company based in Adelaide, South Australia established in 1965 by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman,...
. Tankard reworked some of the pieces she had made in Canberra, but new works created in Adelaide included Furioso (1993), Aurora (1994), Possessed (1995), and Rasa (1996) made in collaboration with Padma Menon, Seulle (1997) and Inuk (1997). She also choreographed The Deep End (1996) for the Australian Ballet and Orphee et Euridyce for Opera Australia. Australian Dance Theatre (under Tankard's leadership) toured extensively world wide. It was the first Australian company to be invited to perform at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Other tours included the Aoyama theatre (Tokyo),Het Musik T.heater Amsterdam
Tankard left Adelaide in 1999 and began a career as a freelance choreographer. Her commissions have included: 1998 Bolero for the Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
Opera Ballet; 2000 The Beautiful Game for Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
; 2002 Merryland, a work for Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Dance Theatre 3; 2003 Wild Swans, a joint commission from the Australian Ballet and the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
, an evening length work based on a Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
fairy story to a commissioned score
Ballet (music)
Ballet as a music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. The dance form, originating in France during the 17th century, began as a theatrical dance. It was not until the 19th century that...
by Elena Kats-Chernin
Elena Kats-Chernin
Elena Kats-Chernin is an Australian composer.Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent , and migrated to Australia in 1975.-Europe:...
with costumes by Angus Strathie
Angus Strathie
-Biography:Angus Strathie has had a long professional career in costume design. A friend and longtime colleague of Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, one of his earliest projects was the cult favourite Strictly Ballroom, a romantic comedy produced in 1992...
and visual design by Regis Lansac; by the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games to create Deep Sea Dreaming for the opening ceremony; by the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
jewellery
Jewellery
Jewellery or jewelry is a form of personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.With some exceptions, such as medical alert bracelets or military dog tags, jewellery normally differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to...
house Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...
a short work to showcase the history of the pearl, at New York's Museum of National History in 2001; the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
and Disney for whom she choreographed Tarzan in 2006. In October 2003 her Pearl, an extended version of her Tiffany commission, was shown at the thirtieth birthday celebrations of the Sydney Opera House. In April 2004 she created a work, @North, for the Berlin Ballet as a double bill, called Metamorphosis, with Norwegian choreographer Ingun Bjornsgaard. In September 2004 her Petrouchka received its world premiere by NDT1 in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
.
Tankard's choreography draws from classical ballet, steps that emerge during workshop processes, experimentation including the performers singing or performing acrobatic feats, and distinctly different dance styles.
External links
- 'Australian Dancing' biography