Ester Momblant Ribas is a dancer, teacher, and mother. Her interest in bodily movement has led her to explore different forms of contemporary dance and a wide variety of Somatic Education methods. From this perspective, her approach to dance and bodily movement fluctuates between Art, Consciousness, and Learning for the individual’s integrity.

Education

She holds a Degree in Contemporary Dance (Choreography) and Related Arts from the University College Chichester (England, 2000); an Erasmus programme at the School for New Dance Development-SNDO (Netherlands, 2000/2002); a training course in Contact Improvisation with Nancy Stark Smith at Earth Dance, Massachusetts, USA (2006), and Paris (2007); and a Postgraduate in Performing Arts and Education, specialising in Movement, at the Institut del Teatre (2020).

She has received training in various bodily and pedagogical methods, such as Axis Syllabus, Systemic Pedagogy, Body Music, Anatomy for Movement, the Feldenkrais Method, Release, Body-Mind Centering, Vipassana Meditation, Somatic Education, Mindfulness, Eutony, Authentic Movement, and Aikido.

Concerts

As a performer, she is part of the collective 'Three on a Tree' (with Laura Dorna and Taïs Oriol) since 2018; they have performed at the Eix Festival Cardedeu (2018 and 2019) and the MontMusic Festival (2019).

She has also performed and collaborated with Dominik Boruchi "Cuerpo Desa(r)mado" (2009-2012).

She has participated in the creation of 'Improvisation Pieces' at the International CI Festivals listed in the previous section.

She worked as a dancer in the Opera Macbeth. Choreography: Michael Keegan-Dolan, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (2004).

Research


  • Awareness and activation of the Anatomical Centre of Gravity in musical practice, and in the organisation and daily use of the body.

  • Somatic Education applied to musicians and dancers.

  • Relationship and complementation between body, art, education, and the individual's personal process.

  • Movement didactics.

  • Co-influence between Musical Improvisation and Movement Improvisation.

  • Bodily, emotional, and mental awareness in stage performance, whether in dance, music, or theatre.


Research Projects:

  • MuMoI Research Group (2013).

  • Study and Practice of the UnderScore: a structure for movement improvisation and Contact improvisation. Since 2005.

  • Paper on the state of Fluidity in the action of Movement Improvisation in the NEURO Concerts, "Ressonància Mutua," organised by the Institute of Brain, Cognition, and Behavior Research (IR3C) of the Universitat de Barcelona and ESMUC. (2013)

Publications


  • Momblant, E. (2017). Presencia, ni más ni menos, Newsletter of the Federación Internacional de Eutonía, 10.

  • Momblant, E. (2013). Vivencia corporal de la verticalidad. Virtual Campus Master’s degree in Music Education for Musicians, ESMUC.

Career


  • In the field of cultural management and organisation, she is a founding member of the association “As d'Arts”: Association of Performing Artists of Cardedeu since 2010, which organizes the Eix Improvisation Festival in Cardedeu since 2012.

  • She organised the Forum of Music Education “21st Century: the Body”, ESMUC 2022.

  • She organized and taught at the Jam de Música i Moviment at ESMUC (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022).

Teaching

Currently, she combines her teaching at ESMUC with intensive courses in Contact Improvisation, Somatic Education, and Improvisation Structures. She also teaches classes in her project 'Tornant al Centre, where she combines these disciplines.

Previously, she has taught regular and intensive courses in Contact Improvisation (CI) and Somatic Education at Tragant Dansa, Superior Centre of Performing Arts EsArt, INECF Lleida, INEFC Barcelona, the School of Expression and Psychomotricity of BCN, the Faculty of Sports of the University of León; Superior Conservatory of Dance of Malaga; Cultural Centre of Porto Alegre, University of Pelotas, and Choreographic Centre of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Institute for Choreography and Dance, Cork, Ireland.

She has also been a guest teacher at International Contact Improvisation Festivals and Congresses in Russia, Brazil, Israel, Germany, France, Italy, Catalonia, Ukraine, Finland, and Sweden.