He became known through more than 30 years as a critic in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reviewing also non-fiction books on dance and crime novels, and working for other papers and broadcasters.

After studying economics (Nationalökonomie) at the universities of Münster, Cologne and Munich, he began work as a journalist with the Düsseldorf Der Mittag [de].

[3] Schmidt promoted choreographers Hans van Manen and Martin Schläpfer as well as Henrietta Horn and Daniel Goldin.

Schmidt assigned the biographies, including descriptions of their works, to a total of 22 thematic chapters, to which he added historical, cultural, geographical and aesthetic information.

[3] While Schmidt remained cool regarding well-known dance exponents such as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and William Forsythe, he enthusiastically reviewed the pieces of the Taiwanese Lin Hwai-min, filled with Asian harmony and beauty.