Image/Set - Lionel Popkin
London Skinner Releasing Easter School 2006
Week Two Afternoon Intensive


How do images and movement choices interact? Why do we sometimes set the image and let the physicality be spontaneous? Why do we, at other times, set movement phrases and leave the internal experience to the moment? What happens when these two ways intersect, overlap, confuse and enhance each other? With this week we will see how image based work moves toward choreographed sequences. Our focus will be how the demands of composing in the instant (aka improvising) interacts with the logic of prior decisions (aka choreography) within a particular set of images.

Lionel Popkin is Lionel Popkin is an independent choreographer and dancer. A former member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, his work has been seen in numerous cities throughout the US and Europe. His last piece, And Then We Eat, premiered to critical acclaim at Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles, before going on to successful runs at Sushi in San Diego, at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival as part of the Inside/Out Series, at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in New York City and at The Place Theatre in London, England.

From 1999-2000 Lionel was a Choreographer-In-Residence at the Susan Hess Studio in Philadelphia, PA. He has received grants from Danspace Project's Commissioning Initiative, funded by the Jerome Foundation, and from the Durfee Foundation. He has been commissioned by San Diego's Lower Left Performance Collective's Satellite Project to create Elephant Gardens, which premiered in San Diego at Sushi in November 2005. The San Diego Union-Tribune called Elephant Gardens “the most purely beautiful” piece, and San Diego Arts praised it for accomplishing that rare combination where “risks led to beauty as well as complexity.”

Lionel has danced in a number of companies including those of Trisha Brown (2000-2003), Terry Creach (1996-2000) and Stephanie Skura (1993-1996). He continues to perform the role he originated in Winterreise as a guest with the Trisha Brown Company.

Lionel is a certified teacher of Skinner Releasing Technique and has been deeply influenced by the work of Susan Klein and Barbara Mahler. He holds an MFA from Bennington College (1998) and a BA with High Honors from Oberlin College (1991). Lionel has served on the faculty of Bates College, the Laban Centre, Sarah Lawrence College, Temple University, UCLA and the University of Maryland, and has taught master classes at several festivals and other universities.

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