Judith Helen Chazin, born in New York City, spent her childhood in Jamaica, Queens, where her father, Maurice Chazin, was chair of the Department of Romance Languages at Queens College.
There, Chazin studied ballet and modern dance with Lucas Hoving, Bella Malinka, Doris Rudko, Robert Joffrey, who was her principal ballet teacher, and, in her senior year, Benjamin Harkavy.