Who is Sasha?

So who is Sasha Waltz?

         Sasha Waltz was born in Germany in 1963 to an architect and a curator.  Her dancing began at the age of 5 with Waltraud Kornhass, who was a former student of Mary Wigman's.  Waltz furthered her training at the School for New Dance Developent in Amsterdam from 1983-1986.  Sasha eventually moved to New York City to continue training as well as dance for choreographers Pooh Kaye, Lisa Kraus, and Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks.  After spending a year dancing, Sasha began focusing on collaborating with visual artists, musicians, as well as other choreographers--and thus began her choreographic niche. 

      Waltz has "repeatedly conquered new spaces;" (Goethe Institut) her work is influenced by other art forms primarily architecture and visual art works.   These tactics were first seen in 1992 when she choreographed a grouping of "dialogues:" dances created with other dancers, musicians and visual artists.  A year after her "dialogues," Sasha began her company with Jochen Sandig called "Sasha Waltz and Guests."  In addition to the start of her company, Sandig also started the Sophiensæle, which is a theatre for the development of free dance and theatre.  With Sandig, Waltz created Travelogue-Trilogy, Allee der Kosmonauten (1996), Zweiland (1997) and Na Zemlje (1998), as well as the project Dialoge `99/I (Wikipedia).  Then in 2000, Sasha became the artistic director for the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz.  Here she choreographed Körper (2000), S (2000), noBody (2002), insideout (2003), Impromptus (2004) and Gezeiten (2005). 

    Overall, Sasha has created 18 pieces.  Her focus on connecting different styles and genres of dance helped Sasha redefine "the concept of choreographic opera."  Waltz's Dialogue series have become her trademark pieces, they showcase her desire to challenge the "formal and expressive forms of energy" (Goethe Institut). She uses large quantities of people in various places to create this challenge of energies.  

Below are photos and videos of some of her work.

Korper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jifXuaXgoHY

Dido & Aeneas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyM-1oABSzw

"Sasha Waltz." http://www.goethe.de/kue/tut/cho/cho/sz/sas/enindex.htm

"Sasha Waltz."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasha_Waltz