Emily Mayne is a versatile dancer and mime who has researched the art of movement world wide. She has a BA in dance from Antioch University and an MA in dance from UCLA, and she has been on the dance faculty of Los Angeles City College,  Detailed Bio> Emily Mayne is a versatile dancer and mime who has researched the art of movement world wide. She has a BA in dance from Antioch University and an MA in dance from UCLA, and she has been on the dance faculty of Los Angeles City College, East Los Angeles College, Pierce College, College of the Canyons, and UC Santa Cruz.

Her dance studies started with a ballet background which began at the age of five. She was fortunate to have had many fine ballet teachers. Her classical dance studies later expanded with studies of the classical dances of other countries. In 1974 she began the study of Bharata Natyam with T. Balasaraswati, the legendary Bharata Natyam master. She underwent a thorough, traditional course of training under Balasaraswati, both in the US and in India, that included training in the demanding and intricate system of mime that Indian dance is noted for, and in tala, the Indian rhythmic system. She gave her debut concert in Chennai, India in 1980, and has since been performing and teaching extensively.

She was awarded a Fulbright fellowship in 1996 for nine months of research in India on nattuvangam, a form of percussion that accompanies the dance in south India. She interviewed musicians and dancers, many of whom were in their eighties, who were experts in this art, and worked with a team of Sanskrit scholars to delve into the wealth of texts on music and dance from throughout the past two millenniums.

She studied central Javanese court dance both in the US and in Java with Pak Sasmita, Pak Maridi, and Ben Suharto, the three most revered dance teachers in Java. She studied West Javanese masked dance with Pak Nugraha and Pak Sujana. In this challenging form of mask work the performer cannot see out of the mask and the eyes, which are painted on, must come to life. Both of these Indonesian movement forms are known for their characterization techniques. She has also studied Chi Kung, Persian dance, classical dances of Central Asia (Uzbek, Tadjik, Armenian, etc.), and has had less extensive training in Flamenco, Bugaku, Korean dance, and belly dance. Altogether she spent three years in India, Indonesia, southeast Asia, and Japan studying, performing, and researching dance.

These east/west studies of movement and gesture, coupled with studies in kinesiology, have given her unique insights into the science of posture, gesture, and movement. She has analyzed this knowledge into an organized system which she has taught to actors and dancers in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Los Angeles, and to animators at the Walt Disney Feature Animation studios in Burbank, Orlando and Paris; the Walt Disney Television Animation studio; Pixar Animation studio; Industrial Light and Magic; Sony Imageworks; Pacific Data Images; and the San Francisco Academy of Art's animation program.

A versatile performer, she has worked with a variety of different groups in a variety of styles including tap, swing dance, and tango as well as modern, experimental, and ethnic dance. She has presented numerous full length concerts of her choreography and has been reviewed as a choreographer both in the US and in India. She has given countless concerts including California, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Hawaii, Mexico, and India. She has also worked as dance director for fifteen dance and exercise videos for Natural Journeys/Goldhil Home Media.  <Make Smaller