HABITAT by Doris Uhlich
DATES: August 1, 2, 3 at 7:00 PM & August 4 at 2:00 PM
LOCATION: Refshaleøen – meeting point: in front of Refshalevej 163A, Copenhagen MAP
WHAT: Performance
FREE – reservation recommended
A chroreographed celebration of the body’s landscape
HABITAT, a groundbreaking performance, captivated the audience at Metropolis 2023. The show featured 40 nude bodies exploring Refshaleøen’s wild landscapes. To give more people the opportunity to experience this unique performance, we will now present it again.
HABITAT is a search for a new habitat by 40 bodies, each distinct yet united in their nudity. The encounter is vibrant and human, as they meet, clash, and find shared energy. Both intense and poetically moving, they are free, and their freedom sets us free.
The soundscape pulsates between insistent techno rhythms and meditative frequencies. Where do these bodies belong?HABITAT is a celebration of all bodies, all ages, and all genders. The 40 human bodies create a shared ritual, welcoming everyone. The 40 bodies guide you on a journey around Refshaleøen – from the past of industry to the future where we can glimpse with the construction of a new island. A new habitat.
A habitat is a living space for specific species. Here, Refshaleøen becomes home to the body tired of hiding. Austrian choreographer Doris Uhlich will strip away all layers that separate us from who we are born to be. She will create a utopia where the naked body can live without shame and fear of outside gazes. HABITAT is a nomadic format, inviting a new group of local bodies each time – this time between 20 and 80 years old. Ordinary bodies, some professionally trained to move, others not. The performance is created with these bodies and the location as a crucial co-participant. A nomadic staging of humanity’s basic needs in a time where everything is up for negotiation.
Duration: 2,5 timer
Recommended from 12 years
Video trailer:
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Choreographer Doris Uhlich is based in Vienna and works on the largest international stages and festivals across Europe. She has won numerous awards in recent years, working with all types of bodies in choreographies inspired by everyday movements. She works with professional, non-professional, and machines, always focusing on exploring or dismantling conventional body ideals. Since 2013, she has specifically worked with nudity. It is not about provoking, but about shaking off society’s taboo on the naked body. After Vienna, Cologne, Bristol, Marseille, Munich, and Trondheim, Habitat in Copenhagen is the 10th edition of the work, since Doris Uhlich created the first version in 2017.
REVIEWS
“Doris Uhlich investigates whether it is possible to create space for all kinds of bodies without adhering to existing norms and fear of outside gazes. And it is. The audience’s coded perceptions gradually melt away in the presence of unpretentious nudity… The atmosphere shifts from astonishment and polite distance to openness, natural togetherness, and gratitude. Everything that can be seen is laid bare on all sides. There are no more secrets, and no more hiding.”
Iscene.dk
Doris Uhlich’s 40 nude performers occupy the searching Refshaleøen as a swarm of individuals, and triumph as an organism that insists on being one with its surroundings. With its habitat… The entire Doris Uhlich’s choreographic approach to the political, to humanity’s inevitable stance, and to the universal desire to find a habitat for all regardless of the body you now have, is not only sympathetic. The choreographic approach is exciting, developing, and both artistically stringent and boundary-pushing. All Uhlich asks for is two hours of openness from your side.”
“It is an incredibly beautiful performance. The evening’s light draws sharp shadows on the diverse bodies, while they stand still in a pose or dance wildly around in a circle… It is not beautifully choreographed dance steps, it is more like the type of dance steps you do at home in your apartment when no one else is watching and that is exactly what makes this an enormous liberating experience. It spreads and more of the audience’s bodies are also caught up in the atmosphere and nod, point, or dance for themselves. At the same time, the chosen locations are spot-on… Beautiful nude bodies lie on rough concrete, with dust and cracks, while the sky draws red clouds behind windmills, whose wings turn slowly around.”
CREDITS
Concept & Choreography: Doris Uhlich
Performers: Amélie Dieudonné, Aline Combe, Antonio Buono, Astrid Sten Andersen, Benedicte Rea Kragskov, Doris Haidvogl, Ella Östlund, Emilie Beske, Enzo Hacquin, Felix Rotter, Frederik Jacobsen, Friederike Paul, Gabriele Albani, Garance Plessis-Fraissard, Johanne Antonina Storm, Katinka Wissing, Klaus Lengefeld, Lissie Vejtorp, Louis Labadens, Magali Camps, Maria Tepper, Marianna Minasova, Marina Dubia, Miamanda Bovin, Mogens Vejtorp, Nadja Mattioli, Nana Anine Jørgensen, Ottavia Catenacci, Paulina Aleksandra Rewucka, Pauline Michel, Pernille Koch, Roosa Törmä, Rosa Oikonomou, Rosa Reinprecht, Rossella De Rosa, Tryggvi Sæberg Björnsson, Veslemøy M Frengstad, Emil Bregnsholdt, Laure Fleitz
Rehearsal Directors: Hugo Le Brigand, Ann Muller, Mim Schneider
DJ: Boris Kopeinig
Production: Helen Parkes
Company – Management: Margot Wehinger
Company – Social Media: Esther Brandl
Company – International Distribution: Something Great
Supported by: Cultural Department of the City of Vienna and the Federal Ministry Republic of Austria, Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport
Project Partners in the Habitat Series include: donaufestival / Krems, ImPulsTanz / Vienna in collaboration with Wiener Secession, Tanzquartier Wien, Münchner Kammerspiele, Tanzfestival Rhein-Main (Künstlerhaus Mousonturm / Frankfurt a. M. and Hessisches Staatsballett under the auspices of Tanzplattform Rhein-Main), Frascati / Amsterdam, Perform Europe (Plexus Rouge / Marseille, Rosendal Teater / Trondheim, Mayfest / Bristol), DOMENIG STEINHAUS / Carinthia, BRITNEY X Festival / Cologne
PRACTICAL INFO
Tickets: We recommend that you book a ticket (link on top of the page), but you can also just show up. If you have booked more tickets than you need or cannot come, please let us know immediately on info@kit.dk (incl. number of tickets).
The route: The performance will last 2,5 hours and will take place on a walking route of approx. 2 km. We will end somewhere else than where we start. It is not possible to bring bikes.
Clothes: Please wear good walking shoes and clothes according to the weather. It will get chilly and windy at the end of the performance. Umbrellas are not possible to bring due to visibility issues.
Weather: The performance will take place in rain or shine to the extent that it is possible, so just come!
Photos/video: Please do not take photos or video during the performance out of respect for the performers. Metropolis will publish images on our website and facebook after the premiere, which you are more than welcome to share: www.facebook.com/metropoliskbh (only images allowed by Facebook) & www.metropolis.dk
Toilets: There are public toilets close to the start and the end of the route. At the start, they are just in front of the busstop for 2A.
How to get there: You can easily arrive by foot or bike (please park your bike at the start place). Also bus 2A and the harbour bus (stop: Refshaleøen) will bring you close to the meeting place. Allow 5-10 min. walk from both stops.
Photo: Thomas Gunnar Bagge