About Mary

Mary Carbonara has been teaching for over 25 years, working with aspiring and seasoned professionals, teens, adult beginners and children. Her teaching is based on the pedagogical methods of Master Teacher Lynn Simonson, with whom she trained for nearly a decade, and incorporates aspects of the Cunningham and Horton Techniques. Her work with children is inspired by these methods as well as the creative movement approach of Anne Green Gilbert. Mary is the founder and director of Hamster Dance Academy, a dance and movement program for San Francisco children 3 to 16 years old, and co-owner with Robert Moses of Studio 200, a dance school and teacher training space in downtown San Francisco. She has been a member of the faculty of Alonzo King LINES Dance Center since 2002 where she teaches all levels of modern dance, from beginners to advanced professionals and where she teaches pedagogy in the LINES Ballet Training Program. Mary has taught on the faculties of San Francisco Ballet, Bates Dance Festival, American Conservatory Theater, ODC School, UC Davis, Mills College, San Jose State University, East Carolina University and around the world, including New York, Chicago, Tallahassee, Tokyo and Kolkata, India.  She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed performing ensemble Mary Carbonara Dances (founded in 2004) and is a former member of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Robert Moses’ Kin, Lisa Fain Dance and Project Bandaloop.