Barbara Maria Messner

Driven by a strong passion for dance and theatre, I left school early in order to study mime, acrobatics, fencing, masks and dance in Paris at Studio Magenia, run by Ella Jaroscewicz.

It was exciting to discover Paris, the world of dance and theatre. 

Living in a small room ‘under the roof’, I made the discovery that Paris was not like An American in Paris and Gene Kelly was not dancing over the rooftops.
 
I continued my studies at the Rotterdam Dance Academy in Holland, specialising in contemporary dance, dance theatre and improvisation.
Additionally, it was very important for me to develop my acting skills with Marianne van der Velde and also with Jean-Paul Denizon, a former assistant to Peter Brook.
 
An entirely new world opened up when I found myself on a film set for the first time.
In Peter Greenaway’s Darwin I played a crazy epileptic type.
The film shoot felt like a dream.
Holland’s multicultural society, its tradition of tolerance and refreshing lack of hierarchies profoundly marked my approach to the dramatic arts.
 
Another highlight was in 1994 when I was awarded a grant for the international theatre festival Teatrale in Germany. There I played all kind of roles in The Last Days of Humanity by Karl Kraus, staged in a circus – an ideal chance to learn tightrope walking. 

During the festival I seized the opportunity to create a show with clown/comedian Christoph Sieber and brought wonderfully crazy performers from different countries together for improvisational events.
This triggered a desire to discover the world with all its new challenges, variety of people and exotic art forms.

So I jumped on a plane to Rio de Janeiro and spent one year travelling through Brazil and Argentina.

For a while I worked for Club Mediterranée as an archery teacher and a show dancer. Then I continued travelling throughout the country, very keen to meet people and their cultures and to see more dance and theatre.
During a five-month stay in Salvador de Bahia, I gave performance training to actors and directors, studied Afro-Brazilian dance and martial art forms, performed a solo and worked with the American dance company Zendora.

After this highly enriching experience, life brought me back to my Bavarian roots – Munich. There I studied Intercultural Communication and further advanced my acting skills.
During this period I met the British choreographer Russell Maliphant, who initiated me in his harmonic dance style combining contemporary techniques with Contact-Improvisation and Rolfing.
 
In the year 2000 I presented more than five hundred live Action Shows with Mac Steinmeier’s renowned stunt team at the Bavaria Film Studios in Munich.

Two years later I had the opportunity to work with Teatro de los Sentidos under the direction of Enrique Vargas, a company with performers of diverse nationalities, exploring research into the poetics of the senses. I was the fortune-teller in the piece Oraculos.
This piece was so captivating that during a later casting, the director’s assistant told me that she recognised my voice and spontaneously reproduced my dialogues from Oraculos. This was a meaningful moment for me – naturally, I got the role.
In 2006 the Bavarian director Franz Xaver Bogner cast me for his television series Der Kaiser von Schexing. With his incredible sense for people and their behaviour, he gave me the role of secretary Centa Spitzauer, an engagement which continued till 2010. Once more I had returned to my Bavarian roots.

From 2010 the Australian performer Andrew Morrish changed my life. In his improvisation workshops he asked the question: What did you like about your improvisation or that of your colleagues? From the academic: "never good enough" to "starting from what is good, what you liked, what worked". That affected my perspective, my way of teaching and stimulated my creativity: scenes and short films were made.

With a new television series it didn't work at the last moment, but I already had
considered possible characteristics for the role and had started to learn swing dancing.
It was a new world again.
Soon i worked for swing dance festivals and took care of bands and artists.
I was particularly impressed by the so called Oldtimers: Hollywood dancers in their 90s like the elegant Jean Veloz. When she observed me once and said: "You are good, girl! Keep dancing, it is such a pleasure to watch you! “, I was in seventh heaven.
Or the black lady Norma Jean, who died in 2019 at the age of 99 and was just about to prepare a new show in Las Vegas.
When I saw her on stage in a red glittering sequin suit, I knew that she was wearing ski underwear underneath, she rocked the Deutsches Theater and had more hip swing and sex appeal than a 17 year old.

Many children came into my life. 2013 - 2015 I teached intensively for the organization: Tanz und Schule/ Fokus Tanz in various primary schools in Munich and started giving workshops on performances of the Bavarian State Theater for the Junges Resi in Munich. It was a special feeling when children, who otherwise do not come into contact with theater, came to life in the play or when I saw them months later and they called: "Ms. Messner, Ms. Messner!" and reported or showed something from the workshop / play.

In 2015 dreams came true.
After working with dutch director Ben Verbong for the international movie:
The Trapp family - a life for music, i was offered a main role for
the serial Red roses, a Cinderella story as Brazilian Analena da Silva.
Whether soap or cinema film, main or supporting role, the intensity and concentration remain the same and the question remains how much energy do you use? 200 percent is definitely too much.

In 2016, writing took its place and in 2017 the radio play:
The ghost of Mrs. Kazumoro premiered in the theatre with 6 actors and the musician Masako Ohta .

All the treasure trove of experience also wants to be passed on. 2019 - 2021 I taught drama and movement/ body awareness at the Mozarteum Salzburg and accompanied, present and online, singing students from all over the world through an adventurous time on their way. In addition i got my Certification as a SourceTuning acting coach, which opens new ways of exploration and combination.

For the future I wish to stay open to life’s inspiring flow and I am looking forward to new experiences and challenges.