Stephan Thoss was born in Leipzig in 1965 and completed his dance training at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden.
In 1983, Thoss was engaged as a dancer at the Dresden State Opera Ballet. After stints at the Komische Oper Berlin and the Staatstheater Kassel, he returned to the Dresden State Opera Ballet as a solo dancer, where he also worked as a choreographer in the following years.
He has choreographed as a guest for the Stuttgart Ballet, the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, the Hamburg Ballet, the Balletto di Toscana in Florence, the Nederlands Dans Theater II in The Hague, and the Ballet of the Saarland State Theatre in Saarbrücken, among others.
From 1998 to 2001, Thoss took on his first ballet directorship with the Ballet of the Bühnen der Landeshauptstadt Kiel. From 2001 to 2006, he was the ballet director of the Hanover State Opera, and from 2007 to 2014, the ballet director of the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden.
In the 2016-2017 season, he took over the dance department at the Nationaltheater Mannheim as artistic director and chief choreographer.
In 1990, Thoss won the second main prize at the International Competition for Choreographers in Hanover with his choreography D-x. In 1993, he received the Mary Wigman Prize from the Foundation for the Promotion of the Semperoper for special choreographic achievements, followed a year later by the Medaglia Laurenziana in Florence and in 1997, the Art Prize of the City of Dresden.
In 1999, he was awarded the Bavarian Theater Prize for Schlaraffenland ist abgebrannt. In 2007, he won the German Theater Prize Der Faust in the category Best Choreography for Giselle M. In 2014, Thoss received the Austrian Music Theater Prize in the category Best Ballet Production at the Volksoper Vienna for Bluebeard's Secret.
