Barbara Mettler’s work explored the roots of movement expression to make dance available to everyone. She used improvisation to awaken creativity and engage the whole person. Mettler emphasized both freedom and rigorous artistic discipline in developing the craftsmanship necessary to create meaningful forms based on movement feeling.

Mettler’s career spanned more than 60 years--directing dance companies, writing books and articles, making videotapes and teaching thousands of students in a variety of settings. Mettler states her goals as follows:

• to liberate and cultivate the natural creative movement resources of individuals and groups
• to practice dance as the universal language of movement and as the primary central art
• to develop freedom, awareness, and control in the use of the body as the instrument and movement as the material of dance
• to provide teachers with material and methods for teaching creative dance on all educational levels.

• the kinesthetic sense as a guide for discovering movement
• force, time, and space and their connections to drama, music and visual arts
• organic form, where movements and themes evolve naturally one from another
• the unity of sound and movement--using voice, hands, feet, and instruments while dancing, rather than pre-recorded music
• dance with the environment--indoors, outdoors and the use of costume or held object
• skills for group work--cultivating activity and passivity; sensing the group body in configurations such as circle, line, clump and scatter; learning how to compliment, contrast, and work in unison in groups.

Her work emphasizes dance as a pure art activity with the intent to create movement forms that are satisfying in and of themselves.

Mettler’s books, films and videos are available through Mettler Studios which is located at the Tucson Creative Dance Center, 3131 N. Cherry Ave. Tucson, AZ 85716, (520) 327-7453.

For more information on Mettler and her publications see: barbaramettler.org