Malou Airaudo began her dance training at the Opéra de Marseille at the age of 8. They were soon engagements with the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo and the Ballet Théâtre Contemporain in Amiens. In the 1970s, she met Pina Bausch for the first time, who subsequently engaged her for the newly founded Tanztheater Wuppertal in 1973. Airaudo became one of the key figures of the ensemble and created significant roles in various productions, such as Iphigenie auf Tauris, Orpheus und Eurydike and Café Müller. Since the 1980s, Malou Airaudo has also worked as a choreographer, among others, for the students of the Folkwang Hochschule, the Folkwang Tanzstudio – of which she was the Director for years, the Ballet de Lorraine and the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève.