Educated at Bromley High School for Girls (GPDST), Mary Goodhew studied ballet in Kent with Rita Emmerson, (a former pupil of Enrico Cecchetti the Ballet Master to Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes) until she was sixteen. She was a Cecchetti Society Scholar and was awarded the Nancy Graham Cup for the most promising Junior Scholar and the Cyril Beaumont Scholarship to the Royal Ballet Upper School.

She performed extensively with The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and on their overseas tours whilst still a student.  After graduation Mary joined Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, (now Birmingham Royal Ballet) touring throughout the UK and internationally.

A Winston Churchill Fellowship and the additional Nabisco Award enabled her to study teaching methods for classical ballet dancers in Russia. The Stephen Arlen Arts Award presented at the London Coliseum enabled her to continue her study of ballet training methods in Europe, USA and Canada.  She was invited to assess the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School for Canada Council and was an ISTD Cecchetti Examiner in Canada and the UK. She has adjudicated and taught at numerous festivals and courses and been a guest teacher at a large number of schools.

Past posts held include, ballet teacher at the Royal Ballet School Upper School on the Teachers’ Course and the Teachers’ Course for Former Professional Dancers; the RBS Associates in London and Leeds; Head of the Associate School – West Street School – Covent Garden. She was Principal of the Emmerson School of Dancing; Founder and Principal of the London Junior Ballet; Head of the Teachers’ Program and the Junior Division of the National Ballet School, Canada. She was also Principal of the Northern Ballet School – Manchester; the Administrator of London Studio Centre; Ballet Principal of the Royal Ballet Lower School – White Lodge and is presently the Artistic Director of the Elmhurst School for Dance in Association with Birmingham Royal Ballet.