Ulduz Ahmadzadeh, born in Tehran, Iran, started dancing in a country in which it is still prohibited. In defiance of state censorship, she learned Persian folk dances and performed regularly with company Harekat from 1999 until 2004. She was subsequently incarcerated. After her release, she started her own dance company, which continued to be highly critical of the political system. Ahmadzadeh studied directing at the art university Soureh in Tehran, contemporary dance pedagogy at MUK in Vienna and Social Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her contemporary dance company عطش ATASH عطش, which was founded in 2012, specifically addresses socio-political issues and cultural hierarchies. In her projects she works with diverse artistic aesthetics, different disciplines such as video, performance, live music, spoken words, poetry slam, text, and installation, as well as different artists – with a feminist, anthropological and socio-political emphasis, e.g. Under Cover (2019), Force Majeure (2021) and TARAB (2022) in cooperation with Tanzquartier Wien. In TARAB Ulduz Ahmadzadeh deals with the cultural heritage and the roles and functions of the female body in dances and rites from the Middle East both in history (Pre-Islam) and contemporary context. Choreographic material uses a post-colonial lens to serve as a counterpoint to the widespread images of commercialised, sexualised and westernised versions of “Middle Eastern” dances.
06.04.2022
