Cylla von tiedemann biography template
Electronic records
The Cylla von Tiedemann Fonds is separated under series based on her works with various institutions:
Series 1 – 14
Series 1: Press Media Material
Series 2: National Ballet commissions
Series 3: Stratford Commissions
Series 4: Tale of a Mask
Series 5: India; 1998-2000
Series 6: Cambodia Margie Gillis
Series 7: Dance Company
Series 8: Rhombus Media
Series 9: Tarragon Theatre
Series 10: Toronto Dance Theatre
Series 11: Personal Earlier Negatives
Series 12: National Ballet Yearbook
Series 13: Early Photography
Series 1: Press Materials
The first series contains the collection of press materials that Von Tiedemann accumulated throughout her career, that her work was featured in. Her works have been featured in magazines such as the National Ballet of Canada magazines seasons and in programs and pamphlets (in English and French) such as the Ballet of British Columbia, Stratford Festivals, Danse-Cité and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. The Press Materials also includes her very own exhibition cards and invites. Lastly are the press clippings from Globe and Mail, and other newspaper publications.
Series 2: National Ballet commissions
Cylla von Tiedemann had many partnerships and collaborations with the Canada’s National Ballet, and this series features much of her work. The National Ballet of Canada was founded in 1951 with the goal of presenting the best of classical and contemporary ballet. Today the company is among the world’s finest, and Von Tiedemann has been involved in many of the earlier production photography portraits and stills. Within the collections contains commissions labeled and separated by job titles or Von Tiedemann’s original category labels. Various National Ballet negatives taken by Von Tiedemann includes productions from Married Widow, Les Sulphides-the four temperaments-elite synocopatrows, Arabian Nights, and Nutcracker. The series contains mostly negatives and black and white contact sheets of dancer performances and port Cylla von Tiedemann is one of Canada’s most sought-after performance photographers. She has become renowned for her ability to capture points in movement. Cylla von Tiedemann is a performing arts photographer, educator and visual artist with an impressive and wide-ranging body of work. Renowned for her dance portraiture and live theatre photography, she is also involved with film, music and the visual arts. Von Tiedemann’s photography ranges from portraits of dancers and performers, to production documentation for notable national and international organizations including the National Ballet of Canada, Stratford Festival, Mirvish Productions, Toronto Dance Theatre, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Yo Yo Ma’s SILK Road Project among many others. Beyond conventional photography, Cylla has collaborated on numerous multi-media projects and her recent collections of work involve dancerfocused digital collage. Von Tiedemann has lectured and presented workshops at Ryerson University, Sheridan College, La Concordia University and the Canadian Centre for Photography. Her photographs have been recognized in magazines and through publication of a book, “The Dance Photographs of Cylla von Tiedemann” by the National Arts Centre. She has exhibited globally and her images form part of many private and corporate collections. Solo Shows It started with an obsession, an idea I could not shake, a meeting with someone whose life seemed to hang in the balance, and for whom I might be a champion. It is hard to express the depth of my fascination with Charlotte Salomon. Nearly 20 years after I first encountered her paintings at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), I am still working on a chamber musical inspired by her life and artwork. Cast of 2017 production of Charlotte. Photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann. Back in 2000 I spent two full days immersed in her nearly 800 paintings, stunned by their intricate beauty, overwhelmed by their narrative heft. I listened to the music she proposed as accompaniment and read every word of the text she offered for what constitutes, as others have pointed out, a thick graphic novel and a thinly veiled autobiography. As she sensed the walls of history closing in on her, she wrapped the paintings in brown paper and handed them to a friend… Salomon was born in Berlin in 1917. As a young Jewish teen, she witnessed the rise of Nazism. Between 1940 and 1942 she spent most of her time painting feverishly, holed up in a pension near Villefranche in the South of France. As she sensed the walls of history closing in on her, she wrapped the paintings in brown paper and handed them to a friend with the words: “Take good care of this… it is my whole life.” A few months later Charlotte, age 26 and pregnant, was killed in Auschwitz. Examining each image, I fell in love with this highly intelligent and talented young artist, whose ironic take on events I thought I knew well was completely disarming. Here was a playful, insightful, and articulate witness, not only to the rise of Nazism but to a complex slew of artistic, familial, and societal transformations. Credit: Collection Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam © Charlotte Sal
2022 Toller Cranston: Metamorphosis, Donna Child Gallery
2014 What Dances in Between, JCC Gallery Toronto
2013 What Dances in Between, Al Green Gallery Toronto
2012 Tanz, German Consulate Toronto
2009 Dancing Wall, Silent Soul, Elaine Fleck Gallery, Toronto
2008 inVention, Elaine Fleck Gallery, Toronto
2005 9 (nine), Harthouse, University of Toronto
2004 Reach beyond your grasp, Pikto Gallery, Toronto
2003 Reach beyond your grasp, Galleria LaMama, New York
2001 Mother India, Harbourfront, Toronto
2000 Dance Installations, Dance Umbrella Toronto
1999 Sacred Spaces, Franke•von Oppen Gallerie, Berlin
1999 The Other Festival, My 20-year journey with Charlotte
Fire Bird, by Cylla von Tiedemann (Ink Jet Print, 2012, 22” X 33” Dancer’s name: Anastasia Shivrina)
What Dances in Between, the title given to Toronto-based photographer Cylla von Tiedemann’s exhibition of dance images at the Al Green Gallery through February 9, captures the essence of the quasi-retrospective as having no strict beginning or end: a creative journey that, like the dancers in her kinetically charged photographs, is caught in mid-flight.
In this presentation of both old and new images – 55 in total dating from the mid-1980s to the present day – the German-born von Tiedemann, a recipient of a Canada Council-issued Jacqueline Lemieux Prize for her contribution to dance in Canada, appears herself as an artist in flux. The work ranges from photography created from film and assiduously applied dark room techniques to imaginative experiments with digital photography and image manipulation using collage. One wall of the show which opened January 10 shows the now 59-year old photographer more recently pirouetting back to her roots, shooting dancers again with film in the outdoors. The energetic Fire Bird, a 2012 ink jet print showing the dancer Anastasia Shivrina looking as if she is leaping into the branches of a tree, is one of the most recent photographs in the show – a dancer, befitting the context of this show, captured between earth and sky.
Shooting dancers beyond the artificial setting of a theatre or studio is challenging because the backdrop itself becomes a moving target, changing focus and direction depending on shifting weather patterns and the transition of day into night. The resulting images represent a balancing act combining inspiration and a mastery of technique, two distinct prongs of the artistic process which this show, in its entirety, has brought to together in the work of a particular artist. Photographer Cylla von Tiedemann
As curated by gallery director Lin