Ulduz Ahmadzadeh is a dancer, choreographer, researcher, activist, and community builder, born in Tehran, Iran. She began dancing in a country where it is still prohibited. Defying state censorship, she performed regularly with the Harekat dance company in Tehran from 1999 until 2004. She was subsequently imprisoned. Following her release, she established her own dance company, continuing to voice her criticism of the political system in Tehran.

She studied cinema at the Art University Soureh in Tehran, contemporary dance pedagogy at the MUK in Vienna, and social design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her contemporary dance company, ATASH (founded in 2012), specifically addresses socio-political issues and cultural hierarchies.

In her projects, she works with diverse artistic aesthetics and disciplines, including video, performance, live music, spoken word, poetry slams, texts and installations. Working with a variety of artists, she creates pieces with a strong feminist, anthropological and sociopolitical focus.

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 practices within their original contexts, as well as their relationships with other contemporary dance forms and the aesthetics of colonial modernity.

Synthesising historical research and archival work with contemporary artistic exploration, her oeuvre examines movement vocabularies, narratives, cosmologies and knowledge systems.

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