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"I am committed to using technology in my dances but not for the purpose of making a comment on technology, but rather to use it as a tool to express the human condition."

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Although Tami Stronach has only had one major studio film role in her lifetime, her iconic turn as the childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (1984) has made her an icon to anyone who grew up in the 1980s.

Today, Tami Stronach works primarily in the field of live dance performance, working mostly in New York City, and while her fame as a dancer may not rival that of her legacy for starring in that classic children's adventure film, it may well be for her dancing and choreography that she is remembered.

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Iran to Israel to America

Tami Stronach's real-life childhood was as dramatic as anything seen in The Neverending Story. Born in Tehran, Iran to archeologists Ruth Vaadia and David Stronach in July of 1972, she was only six years old when the family fled to Israel during the revolution in Iran. There they would stay for a few years before making their way to America for her father to pursue work, becoming a professor of archeology at Berkeley. Her parents met while working on excavations in Tehran, and would be married in 1966.

While The Neverending Story was filmed in the English language and commands a strong following in the United States, the movie was actually shot in West Germany. The original book being German in origin, it stands to reason that a German production company would take the most interest in adapting the story to the screen. This would take Tami back across the ocean to film the movie in Munich. At only twelve years old, Tami Stronach had done more globetrotting than many of us will do in a lifetime.

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The Neverending Story was released to glowing reviews, with Roger Ebert praising the film for using its effects work to create "an entirely new world." Today the film has taken on a legacy comparable to a precious few films as a defining fantasy film of its era, and an all time great children's film.

Following the release of The Neverending Story, however, Stronach's parents chose not to allow Tami to continue working in film, but the will to perform had already been instilled in Tami, and while she would not pursue any more work in entertainment in her youth, she would eventually find her way to the stages of New York as a dancer and an actor.

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The New York Theater Scene

In adulthood, when the performing arts called Stornach back to her craft, she would join the Israeli dance troup, Neta Dance Company, based out of the US but performing everywhere from New York to Israel and Europe. With the group, solo, and with other troupes she has performed in a number of plays and dance routines, including a production of "Chambre" at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and her own original works, "The Maid and the Marmalade" and "Contain Yourself, Darling," taking her talents all the way to Australia as part of a world tour.

As a dancer she has developed a reputation for what the New York Times called a "slyly anarchic" approach to the craft, with Joe Del Priore of the Greenpoint Gazette remarking that her "fragile beauty belies an emotional strength, pragmatic resiliency, and intellectual courage."

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Stronach has not completely abandoned film, and while she has not featured in another role with the cultural impact of The Neverending Story, she has stayed busy in a number of small studio and independent films, including the Czech films Fredy a Zlatovlaska (2008) and Posledni z Aporveru (2017), and Ultra Low (2018), a 2018 Canadian independent comedy where she starred with Lauren Holly.

Now a mother herself, Tami Stronach had her first daughter, Maya, with husband Greg Steinbruner in January, 2011.

Tami Stronach's stage performances are known for their striking, innovative approach, and while she may be most famous for the one major role she had as a child actress, it is through Stronach's dancing and choreography that one can truly appreciate her artistry, bringing to the stage the same haunting qualities she brought to the seminal adventure film. Stronach's stage work might not make her a household name as would a career devoted to film and television, but it has certainly earned her headliner status in the New York City arts and entertainment scene.

"I love the beauty and the simplicity of a warm body moving without frills, but I think technology is part of our common language now and to not create a relationship with it in dance seems like ignoring a vital tool for connection."