Sasha Waltz is a choreographer, dancer and director. She studied dance and choreography in Amsterdam and New York. Together with Jochen Sandig she founded the company Sasha Waltz & Guests in 1993 and was co-founder of the Sophiensæle (1996) and the Radialsystem (2006), two spaces for performing arts in Berlin. From 1999 to 2004 she was a member of the artistic direction of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. The development of innovative, interdisciplinary forms of performance and creation is an important focus of her artistic work, which ranges from internationally renowned dance pieces such as the Travelogue trilogy (1993/1995) or Körper (2000) to choreographic operas (Dido & Aeneas, 2005) and exploratory dialogue projects (Dialoge 09 – Neues Museum). In her current choreographic work Waltz concentrates on the condensation of collaborative processes, such as the fusion of choreography and music (SYMPHONIE MMXX, 2022 or Beethoven 7, 2023). To mark the 300th anniversary of its world premiere, Sasha Waltz staged Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) as a timeless tale about the human search for truth and justice beyond its original religious implications (2024). At the same time Sasha Waltz is committed to the transfer of dance knowledge and dance as a medium of social and socio-political understanding. In 2021, Sasha Waltz created the choreography In C based on Terry Riley’s revolutionary and open score of the same name, which has since not only been successfully performed nationally and internationally, but has also developed into its own system with a growing community. In 2011, Sasha Waltz was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande for her special services to the cultural field. Since 2013, she is a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin. In 2021, Sasha Waltz was appointed Commandeur des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, and in 2024 she received the German Dance Award.

The dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests was founded by Sasha Waltz and Jochen Sandig in Berlin in 1993 and in 2023 celebrated its 30th anniversary. To date, numerous artists and ensembles from the fields of architecture, visual arts, choreography, film, design, literature, fashion and music from more than 60 countries have collaborated as “Guests” on over 100 productions, Dialoge projects and films. Sasha Waltz & Guests works in a constantly evolving international and national network of production and guest performance partners, and since its foundation in 1993 has performed at over 300 venues and festivals in more than 50 countries and 180 cities. Today, the company is showing its current repertoire of 12 active pieces in about 80 performances each year. In Berlin, the company cooperates with a wide range of municipal theatres, opera houses and museums and has contributed to establishing new cultural institutions, such as Sophiensæle (1996), St. Elisabeth-Kirche (2004) and Radialsystem (2006). In 2013, the company was named “European Cultural Ambassador” by the European Union. In 2014, Sasha Waltz & Guests was awarded the Tabori Ehrenpreis by the Fonds Darstellende Künste. Apart from Berlin stagings, national and international guest performances and the continual work on the repertoire, Sasha Waltz & Guests has been increasingly committed to educational and social projects. In 2007, the Kindertanzcompany (Children’s Dance Company) was founded and since 2016 the interdisciplinary and open exchange platform titled ZUHÖREN has served as a “third space for art and politics”. Alongside these initiatives, the company continues to propose diverse offers in the field of knowledge transfer. With the work In C, based on Terry Riley’s open composition of the same name, a system with an internationally growing community has been developing since spring 2021: the choreographic material was recorded in video tutorials to enable the easy transfer of knowledge. As a result, participatory, diverse, international and sustainable In C projects, workshop formats and ever-new structures have emerged worldwide.