Barbara Mahler

Barbara Mahler is a long-standing and active member of the New York City dance community as a choreographer, performer, movement educator and body worker. In her heart she is a dancer, and an ever always mover. As a teacher she shares her continuous learnings, her movement perspective, and knowledge to support others. Barbara has been teaching dance, primarily Klein Technique and its movement principles, for almost 40 years. Having begun her studies with Susan Klein in 1977, Barbara was the first certified teacher, the Associate Director, and the main teacher at the Susan Klein School of Dance from 1982-2001 and The Susan Klein and Barbara Mahler School of Dance 2001-03, - in gratitude for all her work and contributions.

As a contributor in the outreach of Klein Technique, Barbara has crafted a body-felt approach in teaching, more deeply engaging students in process. In practice she slowly breaks down all the component parts of the work and weaves them into body-felt experience. This is where her major contribution in the development of the work lies, along with creating various sequences of movement that call for more body understanding and integration from the students. We dance! We breathe! We connect!

Barbara has been an ongoing faculty member with Movement Research since 2005, her process and products receiving support as an ongoing faculty member. She was a 2001 and 2006 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence.

She has been an Artist-in-Residence in Conception, Chile (2019), Gothenburg (2012), and Brooklyn Studios for Dance (2015-18). Barbara was also a recipient of an NDA Lift Off Residency (2015), and she recently was the recipient of an NDA Satellite Pandemic Residency, creating snippets of dances for future projects.

She travels worldwide in various contexts, as part of ongoing education programs and festivals, as well as open workshops. As a choreographer, she works with subtle and intricate movement, time and architecture. Her choreography is consistent with her teaching vision and work. As a choreographer her passion is the solo dance -- its challenge, its simplicity. Her dances have been seen in Conception, Chile, as part of the BIOBIO Festival, during numerous NDA Performance Mixes, with Movement Research at the Judson Church, at JCPA, Queen’s Theater, and Flushing Town Hall. She has also been involved in the Queensboro Dance Festival for 5 years, - this year 2020 performances, classes and other events happen virtually.

As a teacher and body worker (Zero Balancing) Barbara has been a guest artist at Iceland’s National School for the Arts, Denmark’s National School for Dance in Copenhagen, in Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin, London - IDA; Limerick (Ireland), and Israel (Yasmeen Godder Dance Company). She has been a guest artist in Taipei, Taiwan, (HORSE DANCE THEATER) annually since 2016, as well as in Santiago, Chile (2015-2019) and (her second home, Minneapolis for over 20 years.

She received her BA from Hunter College under the tutelage of Dorothy Vislocky, and in 2008 she received her MFA from University Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Barbara is a Zero Balancing Senior Faculty (1989) and certified practitioner (1986).

She is currently, in addition to her other movement-oriented activities, an advisor in a pilot program that aims to re-pattern the gait of those with Parkinson's disease, in order to create a more grounded walk by working with verbal/silent cues.