Judith Ren-Lay papers

1965-1999

Judith Ren-Lay (b. 1943) is a New York City-based dancer and performance artist. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Ren-Lay began attending the University of Colorado in 1960, studying drama. She continued her education at the University of Maryland in the late 1960s, majoring in dance and performing with the Maryland Dance Company.

Ren-Lay moved to Connecticut in the early 1970s, and was known briefly under her married surname, Galligan. She trained with modern dancer Ernestine Stodelle, and performed as a member of Stodelle's Choreo-Lyric Dancers. Ren-Lay also danced with and choreographed for the New Haven Dance Ensemble from 1970 to 1975. In Connecticut, she taught dance and movement workshops, worked as a visiting artist, and performed original works with the support of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Connecticut Ballet. From 1975 to 1980, Ren-Lay was a principal and soloist with the Solomons Company/Dance in New York City. She toured with the company, and served as Gus Solomons, Jr.'s teaching assistant at the California Institute for the Arts during the company's residency in California.

In 1980, Ren-Lay left Solomons Company/Dance and established herself in New York City as a performance artist, blending theatre, dance, and music. She began performing original solo works, producing between eight to ten new pieces each year. She regularly performed at New York City venues such as Performance Space 122, the Knitting Factory, and the Danspace Project, in addition to touring successful pieces in California, Colorado, and Europe. In 1985, Ren-Lay received a commission from avant-garde art organization Franklin Furnace to develop The Grandfather Tapes, a piece that included recorded interviews with Ren-Lay's grandfather, a birth control pioneer and the inventor of Tampax. Ren-Lay received a New York Dance and Performance Award (known as a Bessie) for choreography in The Grandfather Tapes. The next year, she received her first of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for choreography.

Ren-Lay was hospitalized for five months in 1989 following complications from open-heart surgery. She returned to performing the next year, and developed the piece To the Beat of Impossible Causes in response to the experience. Ren-Lay performed throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, in addition to mounting art exhibitions and writing poetry. As of 2011, she continues teaching and choreographing in New York City.