Australian Dance Theatre's tenth anniversary remount of Tanja Liedtke's seminal work 'construct' not only honours the late choreographer's memory, but also reveals the timeless nature of her vision.

Kristina Chan was a central part of the premiere of seminal Australian dance work construct in 2007.

The dancer and choreographer rehearsed the piece intensely alongside her fellow performers and best friends Paul White and Tanja Liedtke. The trio were determined to fully realise the potential of the work, which was created by Tanja – her second ever major commission.

After receiving critical acclaim for its world premiere season in London, construct was set to tour Australia. That was, until Tanja was killed suddenly by a garbage truck that August.

“After she passed away we toured the original work without her… all over the world, around Australia, and there were three different women that performed in her role in that time,” says Kristina.

“That was very close to her death, so that was very emotional, particularly the first time.”

Now – ten years later – Kristina is working with Australian Dance Theatre on a fresh remount of construct, but in a different role. This time around, she has taken on the job of remount director alongside Craig Bary.

Craig and Kristina working with the remount cast

A decade later, as she creates new life for the work in honour of her friend, Kristina says she is able to find in it a sense of celebration.

“Of course it’s still emotional,” says Kristina, “but I think at the performances – once all her friends and family are at the show, what they bring with them – their memories of Tanja, it will be very beautiful.”

In working with the entirely new cast of Marlo Benjamin, Jana Castillo, and Kimball Wong, Kristina is also re-visiting the elements of construct that have given its memory such weight in the Australian and international dance scene.

The themes of the piece, which largely centre around the idea of building a relationship and then watching it crumble down, remain as relevant as they were in 2007. But Tanja’s treatment of those themes is what Kristina believes gives construct resonance.

“There are definitely layers to the work,” says Kristina. “When you look at the overall arc of the work it kind of builds this momentum and then everything comes crumbling down within it.

“Tanja really made work that was physically impressive, so audiences really get that side of it, but then also she was really interested in narrative, so… audiences can really understand what is going on as opposed to a lot of other more conceptual art that is perhaps made for a niche audience.

“People can really be moved by it, and it just shifted their opinion of what dance could be.”

The 2017 version of construct – out of deference to Tanja’s vision – stays as true to the original as possible.

“If Tanja was here remounting it herself, I’m sure she would be re-working it,” says Kristina, “but it’s not my place to make drastic changes.”

But – in keeping with Tanja’s methodology of encouraging collaboration and input from anyone she worked alongside – Kristina is asking each of the performers to bring something of themselves into their roles.

“They’re three incredible, beautiful performers,” she says. “And they’re artists in their own right – they’re not robots who can just slot into being me, Tanja, or Paul from the original cast.

“I really want them to start to take it on for who they are… there has to be a time when they can take on the role themselves and own it, otherwise it just becomes empty.”

So while these performances of construct will certainly honour the form of Tanja’s original vision, it will also take the essence of how she worked and honour that equally.