Naked in Vienna: Dancing Nude in Doris Uhlich's "Gootopians"
Imagine 40+ people decked out in their birthday suits, down to the a** cracks, all covered in slime. They burst into giggle fits like three-year-old children. Then imagine them all slipping and sliding over each other with the slime, some stretching it out over their faces, others literally waacking! into each other like pinball machines.
Now take that image out of fantasyland into reality ... because that's exactly what we did in choreographer Doris Uhlich's "Gootopians" at ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival in Vienna, Austria.
This workshop said clothing optional, and we took that to heart very quickly.
Women, men, old and young – none of us were spared this extraordinary experience of reveling in the naked body in a crowd of strangers.
And, yes, we danced! There was so much dancing.
(Though if you think the nudity and slime bits are shocking enough, imagine the control it took me to keep it together when I looked over and saw someone pumping a plastic baby doll on their arse in the name of improvisation. Not going to lie – that was funny.)
But first, what in the world is this?
