Awards
2009
Laurence Olivier Award 'The Best New Dance Production' for Café Müller and Das Frühlingsopfer (The Rite of Spring)
Appointment as founding and full member of the newly established faculty of arts at the Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf
Appointment as Foreign Honorary Member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge Massachusetts, Section Performing Arts.
Awarded the Faust - German theatre prize posthumously for her life's work, in recognition of her enormous achievements for dance theatre in Germany.
2008
City of Frankfurt Goethe prize, 2008, presented by Wim Wenders
Order of the rising sun on a headband with golden rays, awarded by the Japanese imperial house.
Music prize of the city of Duisburg
Dance Magazine Award, New York
Honorary citizenship of the city of Wuppertal
2007
Orden al Mérito Artístico y Cultural Pablo Neruda
des Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes de Chile (Pablo Neruda order of artistic and cultural merit of the Chilean national council of culture and the arts), awarded by the Chilean president Michelle Bachelet.
Leone d'oro alla carrier (golden lion, awarded for a life's work), 2007 Venice Biennale
Kyoto prize, art and philosophy category, awarded by the Inamori foundation, Kyoto
2006
Laurence Olivier Award, London, for Nelken
Honorary doctorate (laurea honoris causa) from the Juilliard School, New York
Honorary director (Direzione Onoraria) of the Accademia Nazionale di Danza, Rome
The Snow Queen's Walking Stick', Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York
2005
Golden Mask for the best foreign production, Golden Mask Festival of Performing Arts, Moskau
Wuppertal business prize for city marketing
Honorary PR Ambassador of the Republic of Korea
Golden suspended monorail train 2005 from the Wuppertal union of citizens and local associations
2004
Commander's cross of the order of merit of the republic of Italy
Nijinsky Award, Monte Carlo
2003
Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur, Paris
Spanish world art prize, Valldigna 2003
2002
Bessie Award, New York
2001
Hanseatic Goethe prize
The Harbourfront Centre World Leaders Prize, Toronto, Canada
2000
Life Time Achievement Award at the 2000 Istanbul Festival
International Association of Performing Arts award
1999
Samuel H. Scripps
American Dance Festival Award
Praemium Imperiale for theatre and film awarded by the Japan Art Association, presented by Prince Hitachi
Honorary doctorate (laurea honoris causa) of the University of Bologna for the fields of visual art, music and theatre
1998
Harry Edmonds Award from International House, New York
Bambi 98 (for culture)
European Theatre Prize
1997
Berlin theatre prize
Prize of the foundation for Prussian maritime trade
Accepted in to the order Pour le Mérite
Great cross of the order of merit with star and shoulder band of the Federal Republic of Germany
Premio UBU, Italy
Ring of honour of the city of Wuppertal
1995
German dance prize awarded by the German professional association for dance education
Joana Maria Gorvin prize awarded by the German Akademie der Schönen Künste in Berlin
1994
Awarded the Cruz da Ordem Militar de Santiago de Espada in Lisbon by the Portuguese president Mário Suares
1993
UNESCO Picasso Medal (in conjunction with the opening event of the 25th world congress of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) in Munich
Eduard von der Heydt prize awarded to the Tanztheater Wuppertal
1992
Critics Award for Café Müller, Edinburgh Festival
1991
Prix SACD 1991 (Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs dramatique) for dance, Paris
Rheinischer Kulturpreis (prize for Rhineland culture) awarded by the Sparkassenstiftung zur Förderung rheinischen Kulturgutes (banking trust for supporting Rhineland culture, Düsseldorf
International Fontana di Roma prize, awarded by the Centro Internazionale Arte e Cultura la Sponda
Danza+Danza magazine prize, Treviso, Italy
Named Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in Paris by French minister of culture Jack Lang
Awarded Una Vita per la Danza prize in Positano, Italy
1990
The international Academia Medicea's Lorenzo il Magnifico prize, Florence
Premio Aurel Milloss awarded as part of the Premio Gino Tani, Rome
The Federal Republic of Germany branch of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) awards her its prize on the occasion of World Theatre Day 1990, presented by President August Everding
Premio UBU, Italy
North Rhine-Westphalia state prize, presented by the minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau
1988
Toleranzorden (tolerance award) of the Wuppertal carnival association
1987
Dance Critics Society prize, Japan
1986
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, presented by German president Richard von Weizsäcker
1984
Deutscher Kritiker Preis awarded by the association of German critics in the Akademie der Künste, Berlin
Bessie Award for Dance and Performance, New York
1983
Premio UBU 1982/83, prize for the best foreign theatre, Italy
1982
Premio Simba theatre prize, Accademia Simba, Italy
1980
Premio della Critica Danza, Italy El Circolo de Criticos de Arte, Chile
1978
Eduard von der Heydt prize of the city of Wuppertal
1973
North Rhine-Westphalia funding award for young artists
1969
Im Wind der Zeit, with music by Mirko Dorner, wins first prize at the second International Choreography Competition in Cologne