Jennifer Muller, Choreographer Whose Dances Told Human Tales, Dies at 78

Despite her popular acclaim, many critics found her work too literal.

Reviewing a 1995 performance of “Spotted Owl” in The Times in 1995, Jennifer Dunning praised Ms. Muller’s “sleekly dramatic staging” but critiqued it as a “message dance.” In a 2004 Times review, Jack Anderson praised the Sufi-inspired “Ecstatic Poems” as “flesh and spirit united” and “theatrically lush,” but felt that another piece, “A Candle at Both Ends,” lacked subtlety.

A sought-after teacher and mentor, Ms. Muller led workshops in creativity, nonverbal communication and choreography around the world. Dancers clamored to learn her movement method, the Muller Polarity Technique. Informed by Eastern philosophies, Polarity was based on ideas of rising and falling, gravity and lightness, and a yin-yang flow of energy that freed dancers to move expressively, as opposed to in conformity with codified steps. “Everyone wanted to dance like that,” said Mr. Pilafian. “The classes were full all the time.”

Jennifer Muller was born on Oct. 16, 1944, in Yonkers, N.Y., and grew up there and elsewhere in Westchester County. Her mother, Lynette (Heldman) Muller taught eighth and ninth grades at the Halsted School in Yonkers, where she also produced theater and dance productions. Her father, Donald Muller, directed television shows such as “Baretta” and “Dynasty” under the name Don Medford.

The couple divorced when Ms. Muller was a toddler, and her first memory of meeting her father was at age 25, when he attended one of her performances in Los Angeles. Ms. Muller never married and has no immediate survivors.

Ms. Muller attended Halsted and began her dance training there. At 15 she debuted with the Pearl Lang Dance Company. She studied at the Connecticut College School of Dance, the Metropolitan School of Ballet and Ballet Arts and the Juilliard Preparatory School.

While a student at Juilliard, she began her nine-year association with the Limón company. By the time she earned her bachelor’s degree from Juilliard, where she was valedictorian of her graduating class, she was already a seasoned professional.