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 http://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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