Gabrielle Revlock and Lionel Popkin on a shared program 
Gabrielle Revlock and Lionel Popkin on a shared program 
Gabrielle Revlock and Lionel Popkin on a shared program 
Gabrielle Revlock and Lionel Popkin on a shared program 
Gabrielle Revlock and Lionel Popkin on a shared program 
Gabrielle Revlock in “Share” PDP Presents 2011 
Gabrielle Revlock in “Share” PDP Presents 2011 
Gabrielle Revlock in “Share” PDP Presents 2011 
Lionel Popkin in “There Is An Elephant In This Dance” PDP Presents 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011 – 7:30pmSaturday, November 19, 2011 – 7:30pmSaturday, November 19, 2011 – 2:00pm
Gabrielle Revlock’s Share is one droll take on a contemporary generation’s obsession with sharing personal biography and its impediments to intimacy. Through highly original dance moves, pattern, set, and musical score, Revlock has created a dance/performance work of refreshing delight performed by Revlock, Gregory Holt, and Bonnie Friel.
Set around an enormous elephant costume, Lionel Popkin’s quartet There Is An Elephant In This Dance looks at issues of how a singular body can house multiple histories and the difficulty of aligning oneself with a single cultural identity. Choreographer/performer Lionel Popkin will be joined by “Bessie” Award winning dancer Carolyn Hall and the inimitable Ishmael Houston-Jones, all slyly interrupted by special guest Heather Murphy,set to an original score by Robert Een.
The elephant is a rich and contradictory image in this work. First it evokes Ganesh, the mythological god of fortune and the remover of obstacles, but it also retains its long-standing relationship to memory, which is, of course, a very difficult obstacle to overcome. Finally, the bulkiness of the elephant’s body shifts our perception of the dancing figure and what it should look like. The distinction between the zoologically costumed body of the elephant and the human under layer serves as an apt metaphor for how external skin as a marker of identity is in contrast to the underlying complexity of the person underneath.
Artists
Gabrielle Revlock and Lionel Popkin
Lionel Popkin’s dances are characterized by his blend of humor, subtle sensuality, precision, sly wit, and raw physical power that The Village Voice says, “yields first to the senses” and then to “intimate adventures”.
His work comes from a deeply sensory and unabashed kinesthetic curiosity that places vibrant individuals within an imagistic or abstract landscape, propelling his audience to have a highly visceral and physical experience.
Popkin has presented his choreography nationally and internationally at numerous venues including appearing in DANCEBOOM ‘07 in Philadelphia.
As a dancer, Lionel has performed throughout the US and Europe in the companies of Trisha Brown (2000-2003), Terry Creach (1996-2000) and Stephanie Skura (1993-1996). From 1999-2000 Lionel was a Choreographer-In-Residence at the Susan Hess Studio in Philadelphia, PA. He has received grants from the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs, the Danspace Project’s Commissioning Initiative, the Jerome Foundation, the Nonprofit Finance Fund, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the New York State Music Fund and the Durfee Foundation.
Lionel is a certified teacher of Skinner Releasing Technique and has served on the faculty at Bates College, London’s Laban Centre, Sarah Lawrence College, Temple University and the University of Maryland. Lionel is currently an Assistant Professor of Choreography and Performance at UCLA. www.lionelpopkin.org
For a review of Lionel’s “There is and Elephant in This Dance” go here.
Gabrielle Revlock, director of Mano/Damno Projects, is a native Philadelphian and graduate of Vassar College with a BA in Art History. She has received support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the nEW Festival, the New Edge Mix, the Joyce Theater Foundation A.W.A.R.D. Show! and is currently a 2nd year resident artist in the Susan Hess Choreographers Project. Gabrielle’s performance work has been shown at various venues including the Joyce SoHo (NYC) and the Korzo Theater (The Hague, Netherlands). In 2010 she was resident choreographer at Bryn Mawr College and in 2005 she was selected as Alumnae Choreographer for Vassar College. She is the recipient of a 2010 Rocky (Philadelphia Dance) Award.
As a dancer, she has received three professional development awards from Dance Advance, two which took her to the Netherlands to collaborate and tour with Isabelle Chaffaud and Jérôme Meyer, one which took her to London to dance for Sean Feldman. She has been a company member of Jeanne Ruddy Dance since 2003, performing the works of Mark Dendy, Jane Comfort, Suzanna Linke, and Robert Battle. Other Philadelphia artists Gabrielle has had the pleasure of dancing for include Lisa Kraus, Myra Bazell, Leah Stein, Jumatatu Poe/idiosynCrazy Productions, and Matthew Neenan for the Opera Company of Philadelphia. In 2006 she partnered with a violinist in a Pre-Concert Adventure for the Philadelphia Orchestra. Gabrielle has worked frequently with international artists including Austrian Willi Dorner and Butoh master Katsura Kan from Japan.
Additionally, Gabrielle is the creator of Wear Your Wig to Work Day, a holiday occurring annually the last Friday in January. For more info visit www.manodamno.com.