Julie Shanahan was born in Adelaide, Australia. In 1981, she graduated from the Centre for the Performing Arts.
From 1981 to 1984, she performed with the One Extra Dance Company in Sydney. In 1984, she joined Rheinhild Hoffmann’s Bremen Dance Theatre, staying with the company until 1986. She then moved with the company to the Schauspielhaus Bochum, where she stayed until 1988. In 1988, she joined Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch as a dancer, a position she still holds today alongside her role as rehearsal director. She also works as a restager of Pina Bausch’s repertoire for the Pina Bausch Foundation. In recent years, she has also collaborated with Tim Etchells, Alan Lucien Øyen and Rainer Behr. In 2021, she performed in and toured with Robert Wilson’s piece “I Was Sitting on My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating”. Since 2022, she has performed and toured extensively with the production “L’Etang”, directed by Gisèle Vienne. In July 2025, she premiered Alan Lucien Øyen’s “Antigone” at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
In the 2026/27 season, she will perform in ARCHIVES OF FEELINGS at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, directed by Gisèle Vienne.
