Julia Rhoads

Julia Rhoads is the founding Artistic Director of Lucky Plush Productions. Her work is recognized for its layered choreography, nuanced dialogue, surprising humor, and socially relevant content. Rhoads has created over 25 works with Lucky Plush, and the company has performed in over 40 US and international cities. Her independent choreography credits include Steppenwolf Theater, Lookingglass Theatre, Walkabout Theater, Redmoon, and River North Chicago Dance Company.

Rhoads is the recipient of fellowships/awards from the Herb Alpert Foundation, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, Illinois Arts Council, and the Jacob K Javits Foundation. In 2014, she received a Fractured Atlas Arts Entrepreneurship Award for spearheading Creative Partners, a shared fundraising model between Lucky Plush, Grammy-winning Eighth Blackbird, and puppet theater company Blair Thomas & Co.

Under Rhoads’s artistic and administrative leadership, Lucky Plush received the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, recognizing the company’s exceptional creativity and impact. The company has also been supported through awards from National Dance Project, National Performance Network, National Endowment for the Arts, and MacArthur International Connections Fund. Commissioning partners include Harris Theater (IL), Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (IL), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (MD), Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (VT), and Links Hall Chicago.

Rhoads received her BA in History from Northwestern University and her MFA in Performance from School of the Art Institute Chicago. She is Lecturer and Dance Advisor in Theater and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago.