Lucy Guerin - Infinite Women

This biography is republished from The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Written by Ann Standish, The University of Melbourne. See below for full attribution.

Born: 1961, Australia
Died: NA
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: NA

Lucy Guerin was born in Adelaide in 1961. After graduating from the Centre for Performing Arts in Adelaide in 1982, she danced with several contemporary dance companies, including Dance Exchange in Sydney and Dance Works in Melbourne. In 1989 she moved to New York, and over the next seven years performed with Tere O’Connor Dance, the Bebe Miller Company and Sara Rudner, among others. During this time she also began to produce her own choreographic works. When Guerin returned to Australia she established herself as an independent choreographer and dancer, creating dance works including Two Lies (1996), Heavy (1999) and The Ends of Things (2000).

Guerin quickly became known as an exciting, innovative choreographer. In 2002 she set her own company, Lucy Guerin Inc, to ‘support the development, creation and touring of new works with a focus on challenging and extending the concepts and practice of contemporary dance’ (Lucy Guerin Inc.). Her works with the company include Structure and Sadness (2006), Corridor (2008), Untrained (2009) and Human Interest Story (2010). The company has performed widely around Australia and toured extensively in Europe, Asia and North America. Guerin has also developed works for international dance companies including Dance Works Rotterdam, Ricochet in the United Kingdom, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project in the United States and the Lyon Opera Ballet in France. She has also worked with Chunky Move, the dance company founded in 1995 by her partner, Gideon Obarzanek.

Her significant contribution as a leading figure in contemporary dance in Australia has been recognised through a number of awards, both personal and for her company, including the 2008 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Company for Structure and Sadness, the Helpmann Award for Best Dance Work in 2007, Green Room Award for Best Choreography 2006, Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award 2000, Prix d’auteur Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de Bagnolet (France), New York Dance and Performance Award (a Bessie) 1997 and New York Foundation for the Arts Choreographic Fellowship in 1994.

Work cited
Ann Standish, ‘Guerin, Lucy’, in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Australian Women’s Archives Project, 2014, https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0531b.htm, accessed 16 January 2022.