Sasha Waltz

Sasha Waltz is a choreographer, dancer and director. After her first studies at the School of New Dance Development in Amsterdam she joined the postmodern oriented New York City dance scene that worked in interdisciplinary exchange with the other arts. In 1986 and 1987 she danced in the New York based companies of Pooh Kaye, Yoshiko Chumo & School of Hard Knocks and Lisa Kraus & Dancers. Following her return to Europe in 1988 she began an intensive phase of collaborations with choreographers, artists and musicians. In 1992 she came to Berlin with a grant by the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, where she developed the improvisational format »Dialoge« driven by the spirit of her interdisciplinary and international work. She chose the young German capital as the center of her activities where she practiced new choreographic approaches in self-developed infrastructures. Together with Jochen Sandig she founded the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests in 1993 and in 1996 the Sophiensaele as a venue for dance and more, nowadays a center of the independent dance and theatre scene not only in Germany. From 2000-2004 she was one of the directors of the Schaubühne at Lehniner Platz. In the season 2019/20 Sasha Waltz was director of the Berlin State Ballet together with Johannes Öhman.
During her first decade in Berlin she created internationally renowned and influencial dance pieces such as the trilogies »Travelogue« and »Körper« as well as the immersive dance installation »insideout«. In the following years she applied the language and strategies of contemporary dance to vitalize and explore historical and new operas and ballets. With »Dido & Aeneas« (2005), »Medea« (2007) and »Matsukaze« (2011) she realized three pieces about women and at the same time established the genre of the choreographic opera. In 2007 she directed »Romeo et Juliette«, interpreting the dramatic symphony of Hector Berlioz, for the Opéra national de Paris. From this followed »Sacre« in 2013 set to the Music of Strawinsky commissioned by the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and in 2014 »Tannhäuser« at the Staatsoper Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Simultaneously Sasha Waltz has been pursuing the sharing and teaching of dance knowledge and promoting dance as a medium of social and sociopolitical communication. As part of this endeavor, she founded the Berlin based »Kindertanzcompany« (Children’s Dance Company) in 2007 and, following an invitation from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, developed a choreography with over 100 pupils to dance Schtschedrin’s Carmen-Suite. In 2016 she founded the event format »ZUHÖREN« with which she opened a »third space« for art and politics. She expanded the »Dialoge«-concept to incorporate danced responses to architecture wherein the audience is invited to act as an equal part of the choreographic happening. Examples of this are »Dialoge 99/II« in the new construction of the Jewish Museum in Berlin by Daniel Libeskind, »Dialoge 09« performed in the still vacant interior of the Neues Museum in Berlin after the renovation by David Chipperfield (2009) and the choreographic installation »Figure humaine« for the inauguration of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie (2017). In her present choreographic work, Waltz is focusing on the intensification of collaborative processes, such as the synchronic development of choreography and music. In collaboration with Soundwalk Collective and the costume designer Iris van Herpen (among others) she created the choreography »Kreatur« (2017) followed by the work »Exodos« (August 2018), both premiered at Radialsystem in Berlin. In early 2019 the project »rauschen« received its world premiere at the Volksbühne Berlin. On March 13th, 2022 »SYM-PHONIE MMXX«, a piece for dance, light and orchestra by Sasha Waltz and Georg Friedrich Haas, received its world premiere at Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
In 2020 Sasha Waltz reacted to the challenges of the Corona pandemic with different projects on- and offline. From March to June 2020 she published an online »dance diary«, developed the open air project »Dialoge 2020 – Relevante Systeme« in August premiering a choreography to Maurice Ravel’s »Boléro« as well as solos to Georg Friedrich Haas‘ »I can’t breathe« and in December streamed a series of improvisations with the title »Dialoge 2020 – Relevante Systeme II« live from the Radialsystem in Berlin. In 2021 Sasha Waltz’ latest choreographic work »In C« to the composition by the same name of Terry Riley received its online premiere on a livestream from the Radialsystem Berlin before it was performed in front of an audience for the first time during the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiel. In June 2021 a choreography by Sasha Waltz to Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 received its world premiere in the frame of ARTE’s Beethoven day, broadcast live from the ancient Apollo temple in Delphi together with musicAeterna under the batom of Teodor Currentzis.
For her special services in 2011 the choreographer was granted the German Federal Cross of Merit. Since 2013 she is a member of the Academy of Arts Berlin. In 2021 Sasha Waltz was awarded the French cultural order »Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres«.