After high school, Dilley attended classes at the Jacob’s Pillow dance festival before enrolling at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1956.
[4] In 1964, Dilley took part in the Cunningham Dance Company's first world tour, with stops in Venice, Paris, London, several cities in India, Bangkok and Tokyo, among other places.
[6] In 1968 Dilley danced in the Cunningham company’s tour of Latin America,[7] which included performances in Mexico City, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.
[8] In 1972, Dilley founded her own improvisational dance company, an all woman group called The Natural History of The American Dancer including Carmen Beauchat, Cynthia Hedstrom, Judy Padow, Mary Overlie, Rachel Lew and Suzanne Harris.
In 1974, Dilley cofounded Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery with New York School poet Larry Fagin[9] and choreographer Mary Overlie.