Perez, Rudy

Biographical Note

Rudy Perez was born in Spanish Harlem and attended New York's High School of Music and Arts, where he studied piano and voice. After graduating, he studied dance under Martha Graham, Mary Anthony, and Merce Cunningham, and was a frequent performer at the Judson Dance Theatre. Perez founded the Rudy Perez Dance Theatre in 1967. From 1968-1978 Perez held the position of artist-in-residence at Marymount Manhattan College and trained as a dance therapist. During this period, his works started to take on a larger scale and he began using the term "performance art" to describe them. His company toured throughout the United States, Germany, and Canada.

In 1978, Perez took a position as a substitute teacher on the faculty of UCLA's Dance Department and in 1979 he moved permanently to the West Coast. Since moving to Los Angeles, he has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, the prestigious Irvine Fellowship in Dance, the Pasadena Arts Commission Grant, and Lester Horton Awards for Performance (1992) and Teaching (1997). The Los Angeles Music Center/Bilingual Foundation honored him in 1992 with the !Viva Los Artistas! Performing Arts Award for distinguished Latino artists. Perez was also on the dance faculty at Los Angeles High School for the Arts for ten years (1992-2002) and continues to teach classes at the West Side Academy of Dance in Santa Monica.

From the guide to the Rudy Perez Archive, 1965-2009, (USC Libraries Special Collections)