Klein Technique is a living and growing body of work developed initially by Susan Klein in 1972. Her mentors, and greatest influences were Steffi Nossen, Martha Graham, May O'Donnell, Gertrude Shure, Don Farnworth, Colette Barry, Barbara Mahler, Dr. Barbara Vedder, D.C., Irmgard Bartenieff, Dr. Fritz Smith, M.D., Dr. J. R. Worsley, D. Ac. and many others taught her invaluable lessons; something to push against to spark change.

Klein Technique was developed within the context of Susan's personal search to heal serious and devastating injury which occurred in 1971. She began dancing at the age of five. At the age of 19, about to join a major modern dance company found herself to be considered useless, unimportant, replaceable. The injury abruptly ended her professional career as a dancer. Her quest to recover expanded into a passion to develop a new dance technique and that in turn developed into wanting to change the TRAINING of dancers to to way of TEACHING dance - for them to learn their own way, and respect themselves, and be respected by others.

Klein Technique is a body of work; of knowledge, but it is also a way for dancers to be treated, respected and to be seen as individuals. The main thrust of the work is for dancers to find their own essence, their own identity and integrity and take that into movement. In order to do that we work at the level of the bone, not the traditional level of the muscles. Klein Technique is not a release technique in that our goal is not to release, but to move. In order to move most efficiently it is necessary to release or let go of the muscles that hold us back from moving and fix the body into a set and locked configuration. We aim at releasing the muscles so we can get down to the deepest tissue, the bone, where we can learn to move from the true essence of our individual nature. When the bones are aligned we become connected, we become powerful and strong. The body becomes efficient and alive, and injuries often heal.

Klein Technique is a body of work; of knowledge, but it is also a way for dancers to be treated, respected and to be seen as individuals. The main thrust of the work is for dancers to find their own essence, their own identity and integrity and take that into movement. In order to do that we work at the level of the bone, not the traditional level of the muscles. Klein Technique is not a release technique in that our goal is not to release, but to move. In order to move most efficiently it is necessary to release or let go of the muscles that hold us back from moving and fix the body into a set and locked configuration. We aim at releasing the muscles so we can get down to the deepest tissue, the bone, where we can learn to move from the true essence of our individual nature. When the bones are aligned we become connected, we become powerful and strong. The body becomes efficient and alive, and injuries often heal.

We align the bones by using the muscles most responsible for the transfer of forces through the body - the psoas, the hamstrings, the external rotators, and the pelvic floor. We do not work to "exercise" these muscle but rather to "wake them up"; to use them for support for and realignment of the bones. We work, and teach, for the body to be elastic, responsive, open to choices, and expressive. Movement, and the treatment of each individual student's body, mind and spirit with kindness, respect and generosity is our ultimate goal. And finally and most importantly, the body does not exist alone but in connection to the ground, the space, and to others.

All certified teachers need to have this deep understanding and embodiment of the principles and pedagogy so they too can add to the depth fo the work.

Susan Klein 2001

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Articles About the Technique:

Barbara Mahler started studying with Susan Klein in the 1970s. She teaches most days and has been teaching for about thirty years. I have been studying KleinTechnique (Re- Education of the Body) for a year and a half. My research consists of hours of class time, independent practice, observation, and discussion, as well as synthesis of the practice with daily movement, dance, academic coursework, and indeed much of life. Barbara has a command of the material and a keen eye for what is working or not in an individual in a moment as well as tracking development over time. The individualized feedback she gives students during class guides them to bodily realization of the principles of the technique.
The teaching and learning is much more in the style of oral tradition than academic study. Sometimes Barbara declines to answer a question or give information that might confuse or distract a student. She will often have the student asking a question demonstrate the exercise from which the question arises. Doing the exercise, the student can immediately, physically incorporate the information she gives. After my first class with her, I asked a question. She requested that I show her the exercise, and then that I try it again with her guidance. She then told me, "Find your legs and then we can talk." I needed to direct the forces in my body more clearly through the skeletal structure of my legs to the ground. Once I did that, rather than taking me off track by putting my mind ahead of what was happening in my body, an answer to my question could be actually informative. Thus, Barbara is insistent that students experience and incorporate the material physically. She gives information to guide and catalyze experiential discovery. Embodied understanding makes sense of intellectual understanding, of words heard perhaps many times before. Concepts in action are fruit. A fuller intellectual understanding then comes from embodied knowledge.
Students study the technique engaging with the material using their bodies. They learn the structure and function of their own bodies as they practice exercises and experientially discover meanings of words of instruction. Students of various levels of understanding and experience all study together, each taking his or her own class because each student works with his or her own body and knowledge. Function and understanding grow by positive feedback. Experience provides a roadmap. But the map is not the territory.
Anonymous testimonial

Somatics 101
Dance Magazine
July, 2006
Article by Nancy Wozny

Why do some dancers fully inhabit their bodies, creating a seamless whole between the dancer and the dance? Can we attribute this to a kind of somatic intelligence? Dancers have heard the term somatics tossed around for three decades, but few know the exact origins of the practice. And yet, dancers have been a driving force in the field. The somatic movement was already well under way when the philosopher Thomas Hanna coined the term in 1976. Somatics derives from the Greek word for the living body, soma, and is the study of the body experienced from within. The roots of somatics can be traced back to the late 19th-century European Gymnastik movement, which used breath, movement, and touch to direct awareness. Francois Delsarte, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, and Bess Mensendieck encouraged a kind of inside-out expression that questioned the traditional nature of movement training. They seemed to be saying, "The body is the person," thus joining mind and body in a celebration of the human form.

American somatic thinkers also made significant contributions. Mabel Elsworth Todd's classic text, The Thinking Body, introduced dancers to the role of the mind in dance training in 1937. Her student, Lulu Sweigard (who later taught at Juilliard), developed "ideokinesis," a process of activating the imagination to affect movement. Somatic pioneers Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (Body-Mind Centering), Emily Conrad (Continuum), Joan Skinner (Skinner Releasing), Elaine Summers (Kinetic Awareness), Susan Klein (Klein Technique), and Judith Aston (Aston-Patterning), all hail from the dance world.
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Mark Messer
Dynamic Alignment
Professor J. Neiman
SCP 201
2007, 2008, 2009 Mark Messer
"Do you want to move or do you want to stand still?"

In the early 1970s, Susan Klein was poised to begin a career as a performing modern dancer. However, a recurring knee injury was severe enough to preclude this move. She engaged in finding a path to recovery and healing. She discovered a different way of functioning that yielded different results. She discovered how to use the body in accord with nature. This yielded healthy function and the possibility of recovery rather continued injury.

Recently, while riding the subway in New York, I met Julio, an orthopedic surgeon from Mexico who had moved to the United States to further his career. I told him of my interest in employing what I have learned from study of Klein/Mahler Technique in the practice of physical therapy. I am completing prerequisites for a physical therapy program which I plan to attend in the coming years. Klein/Mahler Technique advocates dynamic alignment, prominently exemplified by putting the pelvis on top of the legs; dynamic alignment responds to the body's continual change of shape with ongoing adjustments that keep directing forces in the body to the support of the skeletal system. Julio commented that the old school was more grounded in these fundamental principles of support through the skeleton. As we talked further, he remarked that "the hip cries at the knee."
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Lecture Demonstration
Siomara Bridges "Cee Cee" Fall 08 Niles, Alumni Report
Barbara Mahler: Alumni Report

All the Hunter Students may be familiar with this alumnus Barbara Mahler. She is no stranger to Hunter College dance space, Barbara continues to call hunter her home. She uses the space to create her magnificent work. Barbara graduated as a dance major from Hunter College in 1977. She got her Masters degree from University Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In her biography it was found that she was not extremely talented in dancing, but she was a determined student, and she agreed that she would not only learn how to dance but also that she would it well. And from the looks of it she has worked to be an outstanding dancer and choreographer. Barbara Mahler's solo and groups' work have been seen worldwide and she has been a guest artist at many dance festivals across the Unites States Europe and Canada.

However it took Barbara sometime to get to where she is today. She discovered throughout her years at Hunter that her passion for dance was there, but she seemed to figure out her interest and passion was the body. It was found in her Biography on her website www.barbaramahler.com that her studies at Hunter College really impacted her way of seeing dance. It was her professor Dorothy Vislocky who was a pioneer in anatomy and kinesesiogy. Barbara then realized that there must be a way to use her body properly; she knew that there was way to get those beautiful turns a shape, and fluid movement. Barbara began to study with the Susan Klein School of dance in 1977. It took her sometime to understand her process of learning; this is sitituation I feel all dancers may relate to. Including myself I feel we work our selves up, by getting frustrated over us not getting movement right. But as Risa Steinberg a Jose Limon technique teacher, said, "We are not slow learners, we just haven't learn how we learn just yet." Barbara discovered that she was to first relax inside, and she would no longer be a just a body that needed to obey the rules. After that she noticed her process of learning had changed, she began to realize her body movement was slowly improving.
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