Following studies in Dance and Education at the University of London, Goldsmiths College, where she was awarded a Certificate of Education, Mary Evelyn trained at London Contemporary Dance School. She was a scholarship student for two of her three years of study. On graduation she worked as a freelance dancer with Dancework, Britain’s first Cunningham-based company; during this time she was awarded a bursary from the Arts Council of England, to enable her to develop her work as a dancer and as a teacher. Subsequently she danced with Richard Alston, performing in London’s first Dance Umbrella Season, and was a founder member of Siobhan Davies Dance Company (at that time, ‘Siobhan Davies and Dancers’).

Mary joined Rambert Dance Company and danced there for eight years. She performed in pieces by some of the most inspirational choreographers of that generation, including Richard Alston, Sir Frederick Ashton, Christopher Bruce, Merce Cunningham, Siobhan Davies, Robert North, Ashley Page, Ian Spink, Glen Tetley, Anthony Tudor and Dan Wagoner.

During her last four years at Rambert Dance Company, Mary also taught company class and choreographed, contributing three major works to the company repertoire, as well as many ‘workshop’ pieces. On her retirement from performing, she choreographed works for other companies including Adventures in Motion Pictures and Transitions, and was one of the first two recipients of the prestigious Bonnie Bird Choreography Award.

In 1988 she joined the faculty of London Contemporary Dance School, teaching technique and choreography and, for eight years, directing the postgraduate performance group 4D. She has been instrumental in developing new courses at LCDS, in consultation with the University of Kent, most notably the Postgraduate Diploma (leading to MA) in Dance Training and Education, which she now leads. This course aims to address the rapidly growing need for the training of contemporary dance teachers at conservatoire level. It is one of only a handful of dance training courses at this level in the world, and is the only one in the UK. Past graduates from the course are now members of the full-time teaching faculty at The Rambert School, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and London Contemporary Dance School.

Mary has been a member of the Academic Board of LCDS since 1990, was a member of the inaugural Academic Board of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama (CDD), and for five years acted as External Examiner for the MA Dance Studies at Laban, appointed by City University. She was awarded her PhD by the University of Kent in 1999. The thesis proposed appropriate models for the teaching of contemporary dance technique, and discussed the relationship between training and education. Mary has supervised postgraduate research at Masters and PhD levels, and has experience of both academic and practice-based supervision.