Born in Tunbridge Wells, Julie Lincoln won a five-year scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dancing before joining The Royal Ballet School, where she won the Adeline Genée Silver Medal. After graduating, she joined The Royal Ballet Touring Company and transferred to The Royal Ballet in 1970. Her repertory included leading roles in Coppélia, Les Patineurs, Les Sylphides, Giselle and Pineapple Poll. From 1985 to 1995 she was Ballet Mistress at The Royal Ballet School.

She has subsequently pursued an international freelance career, staging works by De Valois, Ashton and MacMillan. She has staged MacMillan’s Sleeping Beauty and Anastasia (Tokyo Ballet), Isadora and The Rite of Spring (Royal Ballet, ENB), Rake’s Progress (Royal Ballet, Kobayashi Ballet Theatre), Mayerling (Vienna State Opera, Budapest Ballet, Stanislavsky Ballet, Moscow), Elite Syncopations (Tulsa Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Kobayashi Ballet Theatre, Leipzig Ballet), The Invitation (Kobayashi Ballet Theatre), Concerto (Australian Ballet), Manon (Tokyo, ABT, Royal Ballet) and Romeo and Juliet (Royal Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, ABT, Karlsruhe Ballet, La Scala, Milan, Seoul and New National Theatre, Tokyo, Queensland Ballet).