Teaching, Speaking and Residency Activities
Leading an intimate discussion, moderating a
post-performance Q&A, or delivering a tailor-made lecture or master class,
Popkin offers range of possible community interactions.
Skinner Releasing Technique
Skinner Releasing Technique uses poetic imagery and hands-on tactile studies
to facilitate a deeper kinesthetic experience of movement. Spontaneous dancing evoked by imagery enables students to explore technical principles such as multi-directional alignment, economy,
suppleness and autonomy.
Contemporary Technique
This technique class will focus on a kinesthetic approach to movement. Using methods drawn from anatomical approaches to the body as well as imagery from Skinner Releasing Technique,
we will explore ways our bodies move through an improvisational and exercise based approach
to technique. Somatic logic and timing will be paramount. Hands-on, tactile studies will also be used to facilitate a deeper physical experience of movement. Students will explore technical principles such as multi-directionality, alignment, economy, suppleness, gravity, weight and autonomy while integrating these ideas into known phrase work.
Repertory
Using structures and generative techniques from Popkin’s own repertory, a new piece or study will be made where students can participate in the creative process and be a part of making a unique dance that combines their talents and impulses with the teacher’s guidance and expertise. Alternately, students would get the opportunity to learn the intricate pathways ever-present in Popkin’s own movement vocabulary that yields a focused and rigorous dancing experience.
Improvisation
Students will experience a variety of improvisational skills ranging from solo movement generation
to the methods necessary for group composition. In some cases these could lead to a performed score, while in others students would focus on gaining insight into their movement habits and obtain the awareness needed to expand their own creative palette.
Dancing in Proximity
Drawing on Contact Improvisation and other methods of how to improvise with weight sharing skills
and a listening attentiveness, this class leads students from simple duets to large group dances that draw on one’s own sense of weight and how to deal with another body’s mass, force and gravitational pull.