Esther m Palmer currently works as a freelance lighting technician in New York, where her love of everything backstage joins her fascination with performance and the very act of watching. Both of these tendencies were shaped and encouraged through internships at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, where she was introduced to many different artists and a fuller understanding of dance production.

Esther received her MFA in Dance and Technology from The Ohio State University where she continued to practice these interests in collaborations with artists such as Michael Estanich, Shana McKay Burns, and David Morneau. Out of such influences she developed an approach to creating performance that foregrounds production design and borrowing methodologies from disciplines outside dance.

Esther began her disciplinary collaborations in Chicago, where she studied cinema, photography, and dance before working in video as Collaborating Artist with Mad Shak Dance Company. Her most salient educational influences include Penny Campbell, Tom Gunning, and Stephen Turk.