Ulduz Ahmadzadeh, born in Tehran, Iran, started dancing in a country in which it is still prohibited. Indefiance of state censorship, she 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  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 sociopolitical emphasis

Through a transdisciplinary lens, her artistic and scholarly practice explores the dances, rituals, music, rhythms and cultural heritage of Southwest and Central Asia. Adopting a multidimensional and decolonial approach, she examines the connections and dynamics of dance traditions within their original contexts, as well as their relationship with contemporary dance and the aesthetics of colonial modernity.

Balancing historical research and archival work with contemporary artistic exploration, her work examines movement vocabularies, narratives, cosmologies, and knowledge systems. A central focus is the analysis of aesthetics in contexts shaped by colonial-modern power asymmetries, aiming to question colonial narratives and position these practices as integral to contemporary art.

Selected Artistic works

• [2025] VASHT (concept, choreography / premiere Tanzquartier Vienna)
• [2024] ZĀĀR (concept, choreography/ premiere Tanzquarier Vienna)
• [2023] Ancestors‘ GIFT (concept, choreography/ premiere Dschungel Vienna)
• [2023] Ancestors‘ Banquet (concept, choreography/ premiere Brut Vienna)
• [2022] TARAB (concept, choreography/ premiere Tanzquartier Vienna/ Halle G)
• [2020] Force Majeure (concept, choreography/ premiere Tanzquartier Vienna)
• [2020] Prerogative Lips (concept, choreography, text & performance/ as part of Kultursommer Vienna)
• [2019] UNDER COVER (concept, choreography & performance/ Tanzquartier Vienna)
• [2017] Fremdkörper (concept, choreography/ WUK, ImPulst Tanz/ Vienna)
• [2016] Dance Empowerment (concept, realisation)
• [2015] Vis & Ramin (choreography, dance/ Wiener Konzerthaus/ Vienna)
• [2014] The Little Prince (concept, choreography, dance/ dance and circus in public spaces/ Italy, Slovenia, Austria)
• [2014] Seven Cities of Love (concept, choreography/ Odeon Theatre/ Vienna)
• [2013] Wagnerdämerung (dance/ direction by Paolus Manker/ Vienna)
• [2013] Falling up (concept, choreography/ WerkX/ Vienna)
• [2010] Seit Ewigkeit (concept, choreography/ Rosalia chladek Saal/ Vienna, Bratislava),
• [2012] Achtung Deadline (guest dancer, Age Company/ Palais Kabelwerk/ Vienna)
• [2011] It is still not over (concept, dance, choreography/ Vienna)
• [2010] Artistic director in the Teufelsberg project in Berlin.
• [2009] Call for freedom (direction, choreography/dance film)
• Artistic director and choreographer at Tanz die Toleranz, a community-dance project at Brunnenpassage
• [2007] Naked lonelyness (concept, choreography/ Tehran, Iran)
• [2005] Lady of dream (choreography/ Tehran, Iran)
• [2004] Sleepers (director/ documentary/ Tehran, Iran)
• [2003] Whispering under the water (director/ music video/ Tehran, Iran)
• [2002] Bet (director/ feature film/ Tehran, Iran),
• [2002] (dance/ Tehran, Iran)
• [2001] Centreless Circle (director/ experimental film/ Tehran, Iran),
• Simorgh (dance/ Tehran, Iran)
• [2000] Revolution (dance/ Tehran, Iran)

TEACHING

• Hochschule für Musik und tanz Köln
• Tanzquartier Wien
• Dansens Hus
• ImPulsTanz Festival | Vienna
• Skanesdansteater | Malmö
• Tanzpol Festival | Berlin
• Visiting professor at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK).

Lectures