Gertrud Bodenwieser was born as Gertrud Bondi in Vienna. She began her studies in classical ballet with Karl Godlewsky. Her first performance in Vienna took place, in connection with an exhibition of modern paintings, in 1919. In the same year she was a teacher at a girls boarding school, and from 1921 she taught at the New Vienna Conservatory. In 1926, Bodenwieser was named professor. She also held solo performances of her own work for classes at the Academie fuer Musik und darstellende Kunst.Concomitantly she developed a new choreographic style of modern expressionistic motives.
In 1924 she founded a dance troupe named Gertrud Bodenwieser Dance Company, with which they toured Europe and Japan. This was the first modern European dance company with Steffy Stahl among its members. Bodenwieser became choreographer for Vienna Schauspiel Theater. She was a member of Soroptimistenklub.
In 1939, Bodenwieser emigrated to Colombia with half of her dance troupe. They participated in the Tri-Centenary celebrations of founding of Bogota.
From May through August 1939, they toured New Zealand. In September of the same year, in Melbourne, Australia, they regrouped with the other half of their original troupe. In 1939-40 Gertrud continued touring but also started teaching. She settled in Sydney and in 1940 established the ballet school in Sydney. She also founded the Bodenwiesr Ballet Company – later known as Modern Expressive Ballet. The company included members of her former company and new Australian dancers. They toured in the U.K., South Africa, and India, inter alia. Bodenwieser has been appointed as choreographer for Australian TV where she created numerous dance works. She greatly influenced the development of modern ballet in Australia and was highly respected as an artist and teacher.
Gertrud Bodenwieser received Grand Prix, Riunione Internationale della Danza, Turin and Florence, Italy (1931), Bronze Medal Concours Internationale de la Dance, Paris (1932). Gertrud Bodenwieser was born Jewish, but later in life converted to the Roman Catholic Church.