Sasha Waltz

Sasha Waltz was born in Karlsruhe, Germany. She studied dance and choreography in Amsterdam and New York. In 1993 she co-founded her company, Sasha Waltz & Guests, with Jochen Sandig in Berlin. In 1996 she opened the critically acclaimed Sophiensaele, a theatre she co-founded with Sandig.
In 2000, Waltz was named one of the artistic directors of Berlin’s Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz where – amongst others– she created the pieces Körper, S and noBody as well as the choreographic installation insideout. In 2005 Sasha Waltz & Guests once again became an independent company, with Jochen Sandig as artistic director. In January 2005 her first opera-choreography Dido & Aeneas had its world premiere at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin. In 2007 Sasha Waltz presented, among other works, two music-theatre choreographies: Medea with music by Pascal Dusapin and text by Heiner Müller had its World Premiere in Luxemburg in May as a feature of the European Culture Capital City 2007. In addition the Opéra de Paris in October 2007 presented the choreography by Sasha Waltz to Hector Berlioz's dramatic symphony Roméo et Juliette. The music-based choreographic project Jagden und Formen (Zustand 2008), music by Wolfgang Rihm, developed together with the Ensemble Modern was premiered in Frankfurt am Main in the spring of 2008. In March 2009 Sasha Waltz & Guests presented the project Dialoge 09 – Neues Museum in the New Museum in Berlin, reconstructed by David Chipperfield. In 2009 Sasha Waltz received an artist's grant for Villa Massimo im Rome. Dialoge 09 – MAXXI by Sasha Waltz inaugurated Rome’s new museum for contemporary art, built by Zaha Hadid, in November 2009. In 2010 her choreography Continu was premiered in Zurich, Switzerland, followed by her next choreographic opera Passion composed by Pascal Dusapin, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris. In May 2011 the opera Matsukaze by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa with choreography by Sasha Waltz premiered at the Oper La Monnaie in Brussels. In January 2012 the new choreographic concert gefaltet by Sasha Waltz and Mark Andre was presented as a world premiere in the context of the festival Mozartweek by Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. In May 2012 she was invited by the Berliner Philharmoniker to choreograph the dance project MusicTANZ - Carmen for their Education programme, with over 100 pupils performing to Rodion Schtschedrin's Carmen Suite. In 2013 among other projects, Sasha Waltz created a choreography on Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, a collaboration between Sasha Waltz & Guests and the Mariinsky Ballet, St. Petersburg. Sacre premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on the 13th of May 2013, performed by the Mariinsky Ballet and Mariinsky Orchestrain the newly opened Mariinsky theatre, followed by performances in Paris, Brussels and Berlin.

Sasha Waltz was awarded the 'Caroline-Neuber-Preis' as well as the french cultural fraternity 'Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' in 2010. Her latest honour was the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2011.