BOOM TSCHAK: 20 Years of Doris Uhlich

With BOOM TSCHAK: 20 Years of Doris Uhlich, Tanzquartier Wien dedicates a major retrospective to the local icon and internationally celebrated choreographer from November 5 through December 5, 2026, spanning radical body art, dance, sound, and excess.

Over the past two decades, Doris Uhlich has developed a practice in which dance is treated as a form of heightened presence, empowerment, and collective experience. Working with people of widely differing ages, bodies, physical conditions, levels of training and biographical backgrounds, she challenges normative ideas of beauty, ability and virtuosity. Her works create powerful images of bodies in action, bodies that are diverse, self-determined and uncompromising in their resistance to prescribed roles and boundaries. Whether bringing large groups together in public spaces or developing intimate encounters in the studio, in Uhlich’s work, choreography becomes both an artistic and a social practice—one capable of building community and opening spaces where people can experience their bodies differently, both individually and in relation to others. Combining political urgency with physical intensity and an infectious sense of energy, her work moves between contemporary dance, club culture and participatory practice, inviting audiences and performers alike into experiences of transformation, ecstasy and being together.

From the beginnings to the massive hits: the festival offers insights into Uhlich’s entire oeuvre to date, thus providing an opportunity to immerse yourself in a rich artistic universe, catch up on what you might have missed, or simply see a classic again. Discover golden threads, thematic cross-references, and new perspectives on key stages of Doris Uhlich’s career across the program's five focus areas: Early Works presents rarely performed works from her artistic beginnings and her first explorations of biographies and bodies, which still shape her creative process today. The World of Ballet shows highlights of her artistic rebellions against the norms and forms of venerable stage dance. The works under the title Welcome to the Machine shake up the relationship between humans and machines, between bodies and new technologies. Gootopian Times comprises various works and arrangements in which interactions between bodies and the expressive material slime open up visions of more fluid life forms. Last but not least, the focus area Naked Works is a central pillar of Uhlich’s oeuvre: the emancipation of the body from normative gazes, beauty ideals, and fixed roles.

The festival opens with the book launch of The Future is Naked, published on the occasion of Doris Uhlich’s twentieth anniversary as a choreographer. The program also includes screenings, artist talks, and workshops.

“Now is the time for a Doris Uhlich retrospective because in increasingly divisive times, her work insists on the stage as a place where difference can remain complex, embodied and shared. In our season, The Village, BOOM TSCHAK makes felt how, over twenty years, Doris Uhlich has built choreographic and mediating forms both capacious and precise enough to hold community and catalyze transformation”, say Isabel Lewis & Rio Rutzinger, Artistic Directors at Tanzquartier Wien.

The festival is presented by Tanzquartier Wien and insert Tanz und Performance GmbH in cooperation with brut Wien, Belvedere 21, and Josephinum.