Lucinda Childs is one of the defining figures of American postmodern dance. Her career spans more than six decades. In the early 1960s, she emerged as a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater, a groundbreaking collective that challenged conventional notions of movement, performance, and choreographic form. In 1973, she established her own company. Within a few years, her collaboration with composer Philip Glass and director Robert Wilson on Einstein on the Beach—a landmark work of the avant-garde—cemented her place in dance history, earning her an Obie Award.
Her 1979 work Dance, set to Glass’s music with film design by Sol LeWitt, remains one of her most celebrated pieces, earning her a Guggenheim Fellowship and entering the repertories of major international companies. Her collaborations with Wilson have continued across decades, most recently including Bach 6 Solo, created for the 2021 Festival d’Automne in Paris and featuring violinist Jennifer Koh.
Beyond her own company, Childs has created more than 30 works for leading ballet companies worldwide, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Paris Opéra Ballet, and the Lyon Opéra Ballet. In addition to her ballet work, she has also directed and choreographed numerous operas, spanning both early and contemporary repertoire. Her choreographic scores were the subject of a 2016 exhibition at the Thaddeus Ropac Gallery, and her archive has since been donated to the Centre Nationale de la Danse in France.
Among her many honors, Childs holds the rank of Commandeur in France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; she also received the Golden Lion from the Venice Biennale in 2017 and was awarded the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival award for lifetime achievement.