Ric Schachtebeck studied set design and costume design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Berlin (today UdK) and as an Airlift Memorial fellow at Pratt Institute New York/NY. After a dancer engagement at Group Motion Multi Media Dance Theater in Philadelphia/Pa., he lectured the first major modern dance workshops in Berlin in the 1970s, taught at several universities (Utrecht, Amsterdam, Hannover, Berlin) and developed his own dance theater performances for Theater am Turm Frankfurt/M and Berliner Festspiele. He worked as chief set designer for Kammeroper Berlin and Städtische Bühnen Kiel, built movie and tv sets for Cikon Film, Grundy Ufa Baleares, Action Concept and teamWorx, designed event spaces and catwalks for Daimler Chrysler, T-Systems, Storck, Karl Lagerfeld and sets and costumes for the Schaubühne Berlin, Staatsoper Hannover, L'Opéra de Lyon, International Music Festival Tongyeong, Hungarian State Opera Budapest and Bayerische Staatsoper.
Ric Schachtebeck´s works are represented in various collections: Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Theaterarchiv Stadtmuseum Berlin, Deutsche Kinemathek, Tanzarchiv Köln, Deutsches Theatermuseum, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.