Marco Goecke was born in Wuppertal, Germany. He began his ballet training in 1988 and danced with the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and the Theater Hagen Ballet, where he created his first choreographic work, Loch, which was later performed at the International Choreography Competition in Hannover, Germany.
In 2001, Mr. Goecke created his first work for the Stuttgart Ballet, Chicks. He has since choreographed several pieces for the company.
In 2002, Marco Goecke was invited by the Choreographic Institute of New York, an affiliate of New York City Ballet, to create a work for the the Diamond Project and the New York City Ballet. That piece, Mopey, has since been performed at Jacob's Pillow Festival, at the Biennale in Venice and at the Pina Bausch Festival in Wuppertal in 2004. Mr. Goecke has also worked in opera, creating a solo for Die verkaufte Braut for the Stuttgart Opera in 2003. Also in 2003, he entered the Prix Dom Perignon choreographic competition in Hamburg, where he was awarded First Prize for Blushing, a piece for eight dancers. Blushing has since entered the repertory of Stuttgart Ballet and John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet.
In 2005 he created Sweet Sweet Sweet for the Stuttgart Ballet, which has been taken over at the Staatsballet Hannover. Also in 2005 he created Beautiful Freak for the Hamburg Ballet. In the same year he won the art prize of the Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg, became resident choreographer at Stuttgart Ballet and created Der Rest ist Schweigen for Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam. He also created the very successful solo Äffi, which has meanwhile been performed at many galas. In 2006 he created Alles to a text of Ingeborg Bachmann for the Ballet of the Staatstheater Braunschweig and Viciousvicious for Stuttgart. In December 2006 he received the Nijinsky Award as emerging choreographer and created his first full-evening ballet, Nutcracker, which premiered at Stuttgart Ballet. In February 2007 Scapino Ballet Rotterdam staged his piece Beautiful Freak. In the spring he created Sonett for Leipzig Ballet and, in the fall, Bravo Charlie for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam.
Goecke's successful piece Sweet Sweet Sweet has been taken over by the Donlon Dance Company and the Ballet Theater München. For his Nutcracker, Marco Goecke was nominated for the German Theatre Prize "DER FAUST 2007". In 2008 he created Alben for Stuttgart Ballet, Suite Suite Suite for Leipzig Ballet, Whiteout for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and Nichts (Nothing) for NDT2. In 2009 he created Supernova for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Fur for the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo, Fancy Goods for Stuttgart Ballet, Spectre de la Rose for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Le Rossignol for Leipzig Ballet, and the solo Tué for Bernice Coppieters as a honor for princess Caroline from Monaco.
In 2010 he choreographed Pierrot Lunaire for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and Orlando, a full ballet based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, for Stuttgart Ballet. That fall, his new creation For Sascha premiered at the anniversary of the New York Choreographic Institue with dancers of New York City Ballet.
More recently, Goecke has worked on a full evening ballet together with Ed Wubbe, artistic director of Scapino Ballet.
Marco Goecke is a laureate of the Prix des arts de Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg (2005) and of the prestigious Nijinsky prize in the ''emerging choreographer'' category in 2006.
