Barbara Mahler is a choreographer, dancer, movement educator (Klein Technique), and bodyworker (Zero Balancing) based in the New York area. She began dancing at Hunter College, earning a BA in Dance and Visual Arts, and later received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, after which she spent a decade working in the dance department in multiple capacities.

From 1982 to 2003, Mahler served as Associate Director and principal teacher at the Susan Klein School of Dance. During those years, she was invited to teach and/or perform at centers and festivals across Europe, including the School for Modern Dance in Copenhagen and the Full Moon Festival in Finland.

Since 2005, she has taught Klein Technique with Movement Research in New York City—twice serving as an Artist in Residence—and remains on the faculty. She received a Sage Cowles Grant to teach and present a solo concert at a university in Minneapolis, becoming a regular visiting teacher in the Twin Cities and a selected choreographer with New Dance Lab.

Mahler has created primarily solo dances since the mid-1980s and has performed at Judson Memorial Church, Performance Mix (New Dance Alliance), Mark DeGarmo Dance, Gowanus Arts, BAX, Danspace Project, Green Space, and other New York venues. Internationally, she has been invited to choreograph, teach, and perform in Concepción, Chile (including residencies at GAM), and has taught and performed in Montréal (Circuit-Est, Tangente, Studio 303), as well as in Toronto and Guelph.

Her dance work is supported by her teaching with Movement Research and space grants from New Dance Alliance. She is an annual visiting teacher of Klein Technique in Taiwan and has been part of the Queensboro Dance Festival for nine years.