After studying textile design in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and in Hamburg, Taeuber-Arp left for Zürich in 1915. That year she met Jean Arp, who became her artistic collaborator and then her husband (1922). Together Taeuber-Arp and Arp created abstract multimedia works that they called
Duo-Collages. Those early works were founded on geometry and patterns and were visibly influenced by Taeuber-Arp’s experience with textile design. Starting in 1916 she taught textile design at Zürich’s School of Arts and Crafts, a position she held through at least 1928. In 1916 she also immersed herself in the Dada movement, which had taken hold of the avant-garde artists of Zürich. That year she also began to study modern dance with choreographer Rudolf Laban. She became an accomplished dancer and performed, sometimes with German dancer Mary Wigman, at the Cabaret Voltaire, a central meeting place of the Dadaists.