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 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 has won the art prize of the Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg, became resident choreographer at Stuttgart Ballet and he 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 was premiered at Stuttgart Ballet. In February 2007 Scapino Ballet Rotterdam staged his piece Beautiful Freak, in spring he created Sonett for Leipzig Ballet and in fall Bravo Charlie for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. Further his 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” on the basis of Virginia Woolf`s novel for Stuttgart Ballet. In fall his new creation “For Sascha” was premiered at the anniversary of the New York Choreographic Institue with dancers of New York City Ballet.

In February 2011 Goecke created the full evening ballet “Songs for Drella” about Andy Warhol, based on the music album with the same title, together with Ed Wubbe, artistic director of Scapino Ballet. In March “Place a Chill” was world premiered with Pacific Nothwest Ballet in Seattle, in October “Dearest Earthly Friend” with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and in December his new solo for Katja Wünsche “In sensu” with Stuttgart Ballet. Further some of his existing works were stages with new companies such as “Pierrot Lunaire” and “Firebird pas de deux” with Les Grand Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, “Tué” with Guillaume Coté from National Ballet of Canada and “Supernova” with Sao Paulo Compania di Danca.

In 2012 Marco Goecke created “Garbo Laughs” as world premiere for NDT I and “Black Breath” for Stuttgart Ballet. In April his piece “And the sky on that cloudy old day” had its world premiere with Staatsballett Berlin. In November the full evening “Dancer in the dark”, a cooperation between Stuttgart Ballet and Stuttgart state thatere, was premiered.

Currently Goecke is working on a solo for Eric Gauthier and a world premiere with the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.

Marco Goecke will join Nederlands Dans Theater as ‘associate choreographer’ from the season 2013/2014 and stay on for a period of three years.