Choreographer Doris Uhlich on her fascination with the body, crossing boundaries and how to make the perfect slime.
– 26 June 2022
Austrian choreographer Doris Uhlich (born 1977) has been developing her own productions since 2006. Many of her performances explore ideals of beauty and body image norms, and she also deals with the ideology-free and provocative representation of nudity. Music, especially techno music, plays an important role in her work. For the performance Ravemachine, Doris Uhlich and dancer Michael Turinsky won the prestigious Nestroy Special Prize for Inclusion on Equal Terms in 2016. Uhlich’s production Every Body Electric was invited to the Venice Dance Biennale in 2019, and she was named “Choreographer of the Year” in the magazine tanz in 2018 and 2019. Uhlich is currently considered one of Europe’s most pioneering choreographers. Her latest work, Gootopia, will be shown at the asphalt Festival 2022.

When you look at your work, you seem like a “system breaker” who transcends disciplines and genres. Basically, you no longer adhere to traditional categories or genres. How would you define what you do on stage?
I am interested in topics and finding ways to implement them. I don’t care what the genre is called. The important issues of the present will not be solved by pigeonholing them.
Your productions reveal a great fascination with the body. On stage, you also show the non-normative, which is not yet a matter of course in mainstream media or the world of advertising, for example. Which bodies interest you?
All of them.
You work a lot with people who are not professional dancers. How does the process of creating a new piece work for you?
Similar to working with professionally trained dancers. When you work professionally, the distinction between amateur and professional is obsolete.
Your works often form larger arcs and you produce series that are connected in terms of content and aesthetics. Where do you draw your themes and artistic inspiration from?
A good question has no end and often leads to follow-up questions. That’s why series and remixes often emerge.
In your choreography ‘Habitat,’ 120 naked bodies were on display, and in ‘Gootopia,’ the performers are also naked. What concept are you pursuing with this?
Habitat is very much about working with the naked body beyond ideologies and images that are socially prevalent as stereotypes. In Gootopia, slime becomes a second skin, which simply makes being naked more sensible. Otherwise, we would have to constantly wash our clothes.
In Gootopia, six performers interact with slime. Why this substance?
Slime has gotten a bad rap during the pandemic. Even in our tech-driven world, slime has no place – sterility is important. Humans are actually slimy creatures – we come into the world naked and covered in slime. I wanted to see slime as a co-performer in Gootopia and explore our relationship with it. Slime is essential for many living things. I find its connecting function particularly exciting, as well as the fact that it liquefies and softens bodily boundaries.
Different types and forms of slime are used in the play. How did you go about developing the play until you found the right “states of aggregation”? Did you experiment a lot, and were there any failed attempts?
Juliette Collas and Philomena Theuretzbacher, who produce the mucus, did a lot of research and also tried it out at home in their private kitchens. In the rehearsal room, we experimented a lot, showered a lot, laughed a lot, and shivered a lot because of the cold mucus on our skin. We tried to produce slimes that drip differently, stick to the body and also don’t, create connecting streaks, and are edible. There were also detours in the discovery process, but each detour helped us in some way or surprised us. It was important to us to produce slime that is biodegradable and skin-friendly.
As a European choreographer who works not only in German-speaking countries, how do you experience the current development that, since Corona, parts of the audience have stayed away from the theatre? How do you personally view the current theatre and its future, what function do you attribute to it in society?
Theatre will always exist. I think it’s a wave motion – there are times when fewer people go to the theatre, then more again. You have to be patient – they’ll come back, or others will come, as long as there are good productions. What the pandemic has made very clear to me is that live experiences cannot simply be replaced by digital formats.
What’s next for you?
After lots of touring in the spring and early summer, I’m looking forward to a summer break from mid/late July. My next project, called “SONNE”, will premiere in April 2023. I’ve had the idea in my head for years – the sun performs on stage and looks at Earth and our ecological crisis from a non-human perspective.