Daniel Isaac Feinstein, the son of a missionary of the Norwegian Lutheran church, fled in 1942 with his mother and his siblings to Zurich, where the family took his mother's maiden name. There he met Max Terpis, Jean Tinguely and Eva Aeppli. Spoerri's path to art started via dance. In 1949 he began training at the Theatre Dance School in Zurich and in 1952 it led him to a scholarship in Paris.

In 1954 he was hired as a principal dancer at the Stadttheater Bern. During this time, Spoerri became friends with the artists Dieter Roth, Bernhard Luginbühl, Claus Bremer, Andre Thomkins and Meret Oppenheim. In 1956, the artist turned gradually from dance. Spoerri returned to Paris, where he met among other things, Po...