Studied set and costume design at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin and at Pratt Institute New York as well as Modern Dance in Berlin, New York and Philadelphia (1971-78). After performing with the Group Motion Multi Media Dance Theatre in Philadelphia he started a career as a dance-workshop- initiator, producer and choreographer among others for the Theater am Turm Frankfurt/M and the Festspiele Berlin and lectured at universities in Hannover, Berlin and Utrecht. He worked as the chief designer for the Kammeroper Berlin and Städtischen Bühnen Kiel and designed sets and costumes for theatre, movies and tv, fair and fashion events in collaboration with Hal Hartley, Bernd Böhlich, Isamu Noguchi, Ismael Ivo, Claes Fellboom, Ludger Engels, Kent Nagano and Karl Lagerfeld as well as with theatres like: Schaubühne Berlin, Konzert Theater Bern, Nationaltheater Weimar, Staatsoper Hannover, l´Opéra de Lyon. Schachtebeck's work is collected by: Deutsche Kinemathek/Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln, Stadtmuseum Berlin, Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Schwules Museum Berlin, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Weisman Art Museum/Minneapolis.
