Sasha Waltz was born in 1963 in Karlsruhe, Germany. She studied dance with Waltraud Kornhaas and also at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam. Waltz briefly worked in New York where she performed with Pooh Kaye, Yoshiko Chuma, and Lisa Kraus, among others. In 1993 she established her Berlin-based company, Sasha Waltz & Guests, with Jochen Sandig. In 1996 Waltz and Sandig co-founded the critically acclaimed sophiensaele, which has grown to become an important production house for independent European theater. From 1999 to 2004 Waltz and Sandig served as co-artistic directors of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin. In 2005, the company became autonomous once more with the production of Waltz’s internationally acclaimed choreographic opera Dido & Aeneas. Since the opening of the Radialsystem V in 2006, Sasha Waltz & Guests have been intensively involved with this interdisciplinary production and training center on the banks of the Spree river. With a rented rehearsal room and its flexible performance spaces it has become an artistic home for the company.

Waltz has worked with numerous contemporary artists, including Laurie Booth, Mark Tompkins, David Zambrano, Tristan Honsinger, and Frans Poelstra. The company presents approximately 100 international performances each year and continues to present productions at the Radialsystem V as well as at venues including Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Site- and architecture-specific interaction play a key role in the company’s work, as do multidisciplinary processes with architects, visual artists, filmmakers, actors, and choreographers. Sasha Waltz & Guests has featured more than 150 guest artists since the company’s inception. Waltz has created 16 major choreographic works and has received numerous grants and awards including the Berliner Zeitung critics’ prize for Travelogue I–Twenty to eight. She was named an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 2009 and was awarded the 2010 Caroline Neuber Prize.

Sasha Waltz & Guests previously appeared at BAM with Impromptus (2005 Next Wave) and Körper (2002 Next Wave). They return to BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival with the US premiere of Gezeiten (Tides).