Born in California, Carolyn Carlson defines herself above all as a nomad. From the Bay of San Francisco to the University of Utah, from the company of Alwin Nikolais in New York to that of Anne Béranger in France, from the Paris Opera to the Teatrodanza La Fenice in Venice, from the Théâtre de la City in Helsinki, from the Ballet de l'Opéra de Bordeaux to the Cartoucherie in Paris, from the Venice Biennale to Roubaix, Carolyn Carlson is a tireless traveler, always seeking to develop and share her poetic universe.

Heir to the conceptions of movement, composition and pedagogy of Alwin Nikolais, she arrived in France in 1971. The following year she signed, with Rituel pour un rêve mort, a poetic manifesto which defines an approach to her work that she has not denied since: a dance certainly turned towards philosophy and spirituality. To the term “choreography”, Carolyn Carlson prefers that of “visual poetry” to designate her work. Give birth to des 

works that bear witness to his poetic thought, and to a form of complete art in which movement occupies a privileged place.

For four decades, its influence and success have been considerable in many European countries. She played a key role in the emergence of contemporary French and Italian dances with the GRTOP at the Paris Opera and the Teatrodanza at La Fenice. She has created more than a hundred pieces, many of which constitute major pages in the history of dance, from Density 21.5 to The Year of the horse, from Blue Lady to Steppe, from Maa to Signes, from Writings on water to Inanna. In 2006, his work was crowned with the first Golden Lion ever awarded to a choreographer by the Venice Biennale. She is also Commander of Arts and Letters, and Officer of the Legion of Honor. Founder of the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson at La Cartoucherie in 1999, she was, with the Carolyn Carlson Company, associate artist at the Théâtre National de Chaillot from 2014 to 2016. In 2017, alongside the core activity of the company focused on dissemination, new forms of creation are emerging: an exhibition for museums, a danced feature film for the cinema... In 2019 she obtained French nationality and was elected the following year as a member of the Académie des Fine Arts choreography section.