Molly Lynch is an award-winning choreographer and artistic director, with over 40 years of experience creating, producing, and presenting dance. She is currently a Professor of Dance at UC Irvine. She teaches ballet, senior seminar, and arts management.
Ms. Lynch is the Founder and Artistic Director of the National Choreographers Initiative (NCI), an internationally known project to nurture the development of new choreography that is in its 21st year. NCI received a prestigious National Endowment for the Arts grant in 2015.
Ms. Lynch was the artistic/executive director of Ballet Pacifica from 1988 to 2003. She has choreographed ballets for Singapore Dance Theatre, Ridgepointe Ballet (Manila, Philippines), Festival Ballet Theatre, Sacramento Ballet, Nashville Ballet, BalletMet (Columbus, Ohio), and Dance Collage (Hermosillo, Mexico).
She has presented her research at the NDEO conference, Corps de Ballet International, and Women in Dance Leadership conference. She was the recipient of the 2001 Choo San Goh Award for Choreography. In 2007 she received the Outstanding Arts Organization Award for her National Choreographers Initiative from Arts Orange County. In 2008 she was honored with the Irvine Barclay Theatre’s prestigious Jade Award for extraordinary leadership and creativity. And in 2017 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Arts Visionary from Arts Orange County.