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 trilogy Körper as well as the choreographic installation insideout. In 2004 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. The Opéra de Paris presented the choreography by Sasha Waltz to Hector Berlioz’ dramatic symphony Roméo et Juliette. The music-based choreographic project Jagden und Formen (Zustand 2008), set to music by Wolfgang Rihm, developed together with the Ensemble Modern was premiered in Frankfurt am Main in 2008. In 2009 Sasha Waltz & Guests presented the project Dialoge 09 – Neues Museum in the New Museum in Berlin, reconstructed by David Chipperfield. In the same year Sasha Waltz received an artist’s grant for Villa Massimo in Rome. As a result, 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 2011 the opera Matsukaze by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa with choreography by Sasha Waltz premiered at the Oper La Monnaie in Brussels. In 2012 the choreographic concert gefaltet by Sasha Waltz and Mark Andre was presented as a world premiere as part of the festival Mozartweek by Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Furthermore 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 to 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 in May 2013 under the musical direction of Valery Gergiev. The German premiere followed in October 2013 at Berlin’s Staatsoper under the musical direction of Daniel Barenboim and performed by the dancers of Sasha Waltz & Guests. Together with Peter Weibel, Sasha Waltz curated the exhibition Sasha Waltz. Installationen. Objekte. Performances, which presented her work for the first time in the context of visual arts. Within four months the new exhibition format attracted about 60.000 visitors.
In April 2014 Sasha Waltz continued her artistic collaboration with Barenboim by staging Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser, a production of the Staatsoper im Schiller Theater Berlin. In September 2014 the new production of Sasha Waltz & Guests, Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo choreographed by Sasha Waltz premiered in Amsterdam at the Dutch National Opera. In 2015 her choreography Roméo et Juliette – danced for the first time by Sasha Waltz & Guests – had its German premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
In view of the current situation concerning the need for asylum and civil society engagement, in February 2016 as part of a new project ZUHÖREN Sasha Waltz hosted encounters and conversations with various prominent persons in combination with the dance piece Continu.
Sasha Waltz was awarded the Caroline-Neuber-Preis as well as the French Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010 and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2011. Since June 2013 Sasha Waltz has been also a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin. For its anniversary year 2013 the company has been named European Cultural Ambassador by the European Union. Most recently Sasha Waltz & Guests was awarded the 'george tabori ehrenpreis' 2014 by Fonds Darstellende Künste.