Julie Thirault studied dance at the École de danse de l’Opéra National de Paris under Claude Bessy, performing during her studies on both the Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille stages. She began her professional career as a guest with the Opéra National de Bordeaux before joining the Semperoper Ballett Dresden. She later danced with the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and Staatstheater Mainz under the direction of Martin Schläpfer. She subsequently followed Schläpfer to Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg, where she danced from 2009 to 2018. Her repertoire included leading roles in works by George Balanchine, Hans van Manen, Jiří Kylián, John Neumeier, Jerome Robbins, Mats Ek, Antony Tudor, Kurt Jooss, August Bournonville, John Cranko, José Limón, Uwe Scholz, Stijn Celis, Nils Christe, Sol León, and Paul Lightfoot, as well as created roles in several ballets by Martin Schläpfer.

After retiring from the stage in 2018, she became ballet mistress at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she worked on productions by Schläpfer, Trisha Brown, Uwe Scholz, and Robert Binet. From 2020 to 2025, she held the position of ballet mistress at the Wiener Staatsballett, where she was responsible for rehearsing and coaching dancers, supervising productions, and staging works by George Balanchine (Symphony in Three Movements, Jewels, Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, Allegro Brillante), Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Große Fuge), Pierre Lacotte (Coppélia), Heinz Spoerli (Goldberg Variations), Mark Morris (Beaux), John Neumeier (The Lady of the Camellias), Rudolf Nureyev (Swan Lake), Alexei Ratmansky (24 Préludes, La Séparation), Jerome Robbins (Other Dances), Elena Tschernischova (Giselle), Hans van Manen (Adagio Hammerklavier, Four Schumann Pieces, Concertante), and Christopher Wheeldon (The Winter’s Tale). She also staged and assisted in the creation of Schläpfer’s works, including A German Requiem, March, Waltz, Polka, Lontano, The Sleeping Beauty, The Seasons, Mahler 4, and Pathétique.