Mary Kovalcheck grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and started training at the age of 13. She graduated from Grand Valley State University (MI) in 2023, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance and a Business minor. During her time at GVSU, she had the opportunity to work with several artists such as Queala Clancy, Yoshito Sakuraba, Wallie Wolfgruber, Deborah Lohse, and Renaldo Maurice. Her senior capstone solo “Forward” was selected to be in the Spring Dance Concert. Mary was also a recipient of the Upper Division Dance Scholarship and the Alexander Calder Honors Scholarship. She attended the American Dance Festival in 2023 on scholarship, where she worked with Brian Brooks before joining South Chicago Dance Theatre for two seasons. During her time at SCDT, she worked with Kia S. Smith, Monique Haley, Terence Marling, Tsai-Hsi Hung, and Joshua Blake Carter. Mary also had the opportunity to be a part of New Dances 2024 hosted by Thodos Dance Chicago and DanceWorks Chicago. In 2025, she received a scholarship to attend Eisenhower Dance Detroit’s NewDANCEfest intensive and worked closely with Alex Soulliere and Jonathan Wade.