Award-winning choreographer Lucy Guerin was born in Adelaide, Australia, and graduated from the Centre for Performing Arts in 1982 before dancing with Russell Dumas (Dance Exchange) and Nanette Hassall (Danceworks). Guerin moved to New York in 1989 for seven years where she danced with Tere O’Connor Dance, the Bebe Miller Company and Sara Rudner, and began to produce her first choreographic works.
In 2002 she founded Lucy Guerin Inc (LGI) in Melbourne, to support the development and creation of new works with a focus on challenging and extending the discourse and practice of dance and building a vibrant community of dance artists.
Guerin’s works have merged with film, words, music, design, and visual art in collaboration with many other artists. New productions are generated through an experimental approach to the creative process. Guerin works towards creating small societies in her productions that devise their rules from the human body’s relationship to space, rhythm, and other people. The dancers are her primary collaborators.
Guerin has presented her work in most of Australia’s major festivals and venues. She has also toured extensively in Asia, North America and Europe including presentations at Théâtre de la Ville (Paris) the Venice Biennale of Dance, Baryshnikov Arts Centre (New York) Salihara (Jakarta) and Shanghai International Festival among many others. She has been commissioned by companies including The Australian Ballet, Chunky Move, Dance Works Rotterdam (Netherlands), Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project (USA), Lyon Opera Ballet (France), Skånes Dansteater (Sweden) and Rambert (UK) Her awards include the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, a New York Dance and Performance Award (a ‘Bessie’) and multiple Green Room Awards, Helpmann Awards and Australian Dance Awards. In 2016, Guerin received the Australia Council Award for Dance and in 2020 she was awarded the Order of Australia.