Initially a music student, Jooss trained in dance from 1920 to 1924 with Rudolf Laban (Laban, Rudolf) and then worked as choreographer for the avant-garde Neue Tanzbühne (“New Dance Stage”). After studying ballet in Vienna and Paris, Jooss returned to Germany and established a school (1927) and company (1928). In 1930 he became ballet master at the Essen Opera House, where his own group performed. In 1932 he choreographed The Green Table, which won first prize in the choreographic competition organized by the International Archives of Dance in Paris. Subsequently his group became known as Ballets Jooss and made a world tour during 1933 and 1934. Because Adolf Hitler had come to power, Jooss did not return to Germany but with Sigurd Leeder made his headquarters at Dartington Hall, Devon, Eng., where many students came to study his approach to dance. Jooss returned to Essen in 1949, as a British citizen, and reopened his school. His company was disbanded in 1953 (and he retired as school director in 1968), but he reorganized the company for festivals during 1963 and 1964.

Jooss's masterpiece, The Green Table, is a caustic satire on the futility of war. His other ballets, which include The Big City (1932) and The Seven Heroes (1933), also have contemporary themes or implications. Jooss retained basic ballet steps and positions in his choreography and made extensive use of expressive gesture but eliminated such displays of virtuosity as the use of points and multiple pirouettes. At his school at Dartington Hall and later at Essen, Jooss formalized his approach by further developing eukinetics, a system originated by Laban and designed to enable a dancer to perform a wide variety of dance styles with expression and control. Through his eclectic choreography and his teaching, Jooss expanded the technical and thematic range of theatrical dance.