ESTHER, THE ARTIST
Movement gives my feelings a place to live.
I’m Esther Bramlett — a choreographer, movement artist, performer, and producer translating the richness of lived, embodied experience into work that helps people feel seen, grounded, and alive.
THE BODY AS A THROUGHLINE
My art begins with the body.
I don’t experience my bodywork and my art as separate practices. Both ask me to listen closely to sensation, pattern, tension, adaptation, and the intelligence of the body.
Building myself as a dancer has always been rooted in metabolizing emotions that have nowhere else to go. Dance is how I am present in my body. Visual art is how I share what I feel. Producing and curating are how I connect through aliveness.
The purpose of my art is to translate the richness of my lived, embodied life into experiences that help others feel seen, grounded, and alive.
INTRODUCING DAME DYNAMITE
Targeted destruction for targeted growth.
Within my larger artistic practice, Dame Dynamite is the creative performance personality I use to explore archetypal themes through dance, illusion, texture, and surprise.
I’m drawn to dynamite because it makes destruction specific: a charge placed exactly where something needs to come apart so something else can be built. An identity must be deconstructed to be reconstructed. Dame Dynamite is the medium I use to release stagnant energy, old identities, limiting beliefs, and stereotypes… with a bang.
SELECTED WORK
A body of work in motion.
Malum Malus
SOLIST · AUSTIN, TEXAS
An award-winning dance theater company and recipient of a 2023 Payne Award for Best Dance Ensemble.
Dame Dynamite
PERFORMANCE ARTIST · 2013–PRESENT
An ongoing solo performance project using dance, illusion, texture, and surprise as vehicles for transformation.
Lightfighter Dance Company
CHOREOGRAPHER + PRODUCER · 2015–2017
An experimental dance theater company that produced commissioned work for Ballet East Dance Company, the Austin Dance Festival, and the Waco Dance Festival.
Articulate Austin
CREATIVE DIRECTOR + PRODUCER · 2018–2020
A modern dance community supporting local choreographers and bringing process-based work to Austin audiences. Supported by the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division.
Ravel
DANCE THEATER OUTLET
A rehearsal film of a dance theater duet I still love.