Eszter Gál is a Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist (MSME/T), dancer, choreographer, and teacher, currently teaching at three Performing Arts institutions: FreeSZFE and Budapest Acting School (for actors’ training), and Budapest Circus Arts and Contemporary Dance College. She graduated from the University of Physical Education in Budapest in 1989, where she specialized as a Physiotherapist for children. She studied in Arnhem at CNDO/EDDC from 1991 to 1994, and taught there between 1995 and 2004 as a guest teacher and for two years as a faculty member.
She is a certified Skinner Releasing Technique® (SRT) teacher on the Introductory and Ongoing levels. Her most influential teachers include Eva Karczag, Mary O’Donnell (Fulkerson), Stephanie Skura, Steve Paxton, Tony Thatcher, Lisa Kraus, Benoit Lachambre, Mark Tompkins and Joan Skinner, Robert Davidson, Teresa Moriarty, Gaby Agis, Martin Keogh, Nina Martin, Nancy Stark Smith. She has been teaching open classes, master workshops of contact improvisation, release-based movement technique, composition, and improvisation in independent dance programs nationally and internationally since 1995. She has taught at the Hungarian Dance Academy, the Contemporary Dance Academy, and the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest, where she has coordinated the movement studies for 6 years. She was the artistic director and organizer of the annual Kontakt Budapest International Improvisation Festival from 2002 until 2015 and was leading national and international events and projects in Hungary and Europe.
She is one of the co-founders of IDOCDE – International Documentation of Contemporary Dance Education, a project on developing a website for sharing, discussing, and archiving the process and practice of teaching contemporary dance. Her core interest is in somatic-based movement research, improvisation performance, and community work for dance education. She has been creating her own artistic work since 1993.
In 2020, she joined the Berlin-based Cranky Bodies a/company to research collaborative performance-art making within an international frame and make the artistry of the Postmodern dance legacy visible. She is a founding member of ArtMan Association for the Arts and Movement Therapy (2005), which has provided therapy and art programs for groups of all abilities. Since 2003, as a member and co-leader of Company Tánceánia, she has been applying the principles and practices of Contact Improvisation, SRT®, and ensemble improvisation methods for disabled people. She is in the final phase of her doctoral studies, researching the legacy of Contact Improvisation in Hungary.
In 2023, she co-founded Somatic Dialogues Academy with Ágnes Gyulavári, Ferenc Kálmán and Vera Sifter and directs its 500-hour Somatic Movement Educator Training program.
Intro / Ongoing SRT Certificate:
1997
Location:
Hungary
Website:
http://www.kontaktbudapest.hu/
Email:
eszter@kontaktbudapest.hu