Silke Sense was born in Berlin and joined the ballet school of Tatjana Gsovsky and Gerd Reinholm, then ballet director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, at the age of seven, where she was trained and influenced by Tatjana Gsovsky until the age of 15. At the age of 15, she was the youngest participant to reach the semi-finals of the Prix de Lausanne. In 1979, while still a student, she studied the role of Clara in "The Nutcracker" with Rudolf Nureyev and in the same year, at the age of 16, she danced her first solo roles at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
In 1980, Silke Sense became a member of the ballet company at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she was promoted to demi-soloist in 1981 and First Soloist in 1982. By 1997, she had danced over 70 roles, working with choreographers such as Béjart, Nureyev, Neumeier, Kylian, van Manen, Spoerli, Petit, Schaufuß, Armitage, Fenley, Jones, MacMillan and Seyffert.
Selection from the repertoire: "La Sylphide", "Swan Lake", "Giselle", "The Nutcracker", "A Folk Tale", "Cinderella", "La Fille mal gardée", "Carmen", "Daphnis et Chloé", Symphony in C, "Serenade", "La Valse", "Apollon musagète", "Coppelia", "The Seven Deadly Sins", "Pavane for a Dead Princess", "The Green Table", "Les Intermittences du cœur", "The Firebird", "Las Hermanas", "Carmina Burana", "Petrushka", Symphony in D, "Stamping Ground", "Three Last Songs", "Boléro", "Ring um den Ring" and many more.
In 1997, she ended her dancing career and, after completing her studies in European cultural management, worked as a freelance manager. She was also in demand as a ballet mistress and coach for dancers and worked with young singers in workshops on stage presence, role development and body language.
Since the 2004/05 season, she has been Director of the opera ballet at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and is responsible for choreographic rehearsals. She was the choreographer for the productions of "Manon Lescaut", "Pagliacci", "Das Traumfresserchen", "Lulu" (revival) and "Simon Boccanegra". She collaborated on the choreography for "Marie Victoire", "The Barber of Seville" and "Carmen" (revival).
At the Cologne Opera, she was Assistant Director for Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera" (Director and set designer: José Cura, premiere in May 2008) and at the Berlin Chamber Opera for "Gloria von Jaxtberg" by HK Gruber (Director: Antje Lenkeit, premiere in June 2009).
She has worked with director Roland Schwab for many years: she created the choreography for "Fragmente", "Tiefland" and "Don Giovanni" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as for "Die lustige Witwe" in Altenburg and Gera.
Since 2008, Silke Sense has increasingly taken on tasks as an Assistant Director and has been a Spielleiterin (Stage Manager & Assistant Director) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2016. As Assistant Director, she also worked for Roland Schwab on his production of "Tristan und Isolde" at the Bayreuth Festival and his production of "Der Rosenkavalier" at the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg in 2022. In the summer of 2025, she returned to the Bayreuth Festival for "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg".