Childs graduated as a dance major from Sarah Lawrence College in 1962 (where she studied with Judith Dunn and Bessie Schönberg) and then studied at the Merce Cunningham studio. She began her professional career as a choreographer and performer in 1963 as an original member of the Judson Dance Theater in New York. After forming her own dance company in 1973, Ms. Childs collaborated with Robert Wilson and Philip Glass on the opera Einstein on the Beach, participating as a lead performer and choreographer, she also participated in the revivals of the opera in 1984,1992 and 2007, and is currently scheduled for involvement in the third revival of the opera at Lincoln Center, in November 2009. During 1977-78, Ms. Childs performed opposite Wilson, in his two-act play I Was Sitting On My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating, and in 1987-88, in Wilson's production of Heiner Muller's Quartett at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1996-97 Childs appeared in Wilson's production of La Maladie de la Mort by Marguerite Duras, opposite French actor Michel Piccoli.

Since 1979, Ms. Childs has collaborated with a number of composers and designers, including John Adams and Frank Gehry, on a series of large-scale productions. Among these projects was Dance, choreographed in 1979 with music by Philip Glass, and a film/decor by Sol LeWitt, for which Ms. Childs was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Since 1981, Ms. Childs has received a number of commissions from major ballet companies; these include the Paris Opéra Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet, Lyon Opéra Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Geneva Opera Ballet, Ballet du l’Opéra du Rhin, the Boston Ballet, and the Bayerisches Staatsballett of Munich.

In 2003, Ms Childs choreographed Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, for the Geneva Opera Ballet and revived Concerto with music by Henry Gorecki, which was choreographed for her own company in 1993. In 2003, she also choreographed Opus One, a new solo for Mikhail Baryshnikov with music by Alban Berg, and then in 2004 she choreographed Bartok’s Mandarin Merveilleux for the Ballet de l’Opéra du Rhin. In 2005, Ms. Childs choreographed a Ten Part Suite for the Boston Ballet with music by Arcangelo Corelli, which premiered at the Wang Center in Boston.

In April 2007, The Bayerisches Staats Ballett in Munich revived Chamber Symphony, where it premiered in 1994, with music by John Adams. That same year she also appeared in Robert Wilson’s production of Bach’s Passion of Saint John at the Théâtre de Chatelet in Paris, before returning to the Opéra du Rhin to choreograph and direct Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol and Oedipus Rex.

Since 1992, Ms. Childs has worked extensively in the domain of opera, including Luc Bondy's production of Richard Strauss's Salome, which she choreographed for the Salzburg Festival, and in 1999, and then later revived for La Scala in Milan in March, 2007. In 1995 she choreographed Bondy's production of Verdi's Macbeth for the Scottish Opera, and Peter Stein's De Nederlandse Opera's production of Moise et Aron. That same year Ms. Childs directed her first opera, Mozart's Zaide, for La Monnaie in Brussels. In 2001, Childs choreographed the Los Angeles Opera’s production of Wagner’s Lohengrin, conducted by Kent Nagano. In 2002, Ms. Childs directed Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice for the Scottish Opera and in 2003, Ms. Childs was invited to return to Los Angeles Opera to choreograph and direct a new production of Orfeo ed Euridice. Ms. Childs also choreographed Roland Aeschlimann's production of Wagner’s Parsifal, which premiered at the Grand Theatre de Genève in 2004, and most recently she choreographed John Adams new opera, Doctor Atomic, directed by Peter Sellars, which premiered in 2005 with the San Francisco Opera, was later revived by the Holland Festival in June 2007, and recently appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in December 2007.

In 2004 Ms. Childs was appointed by the French Government to the rank of Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.