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Department ofTheatre and Dance

David J. Popalisky

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David J. Popalisky

Associate Professor

David Popalisky, an independent choreographer, has created over 90 original dances. Named an 2015 Artist Laureate by Silicon Valley Creates, acknowledging his body of choreographic work, David's dances have been presented throughout the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York City and Beijing, China. David has created four evening length multimedia dances on critical issues of our time: The Water Project (2021) celebrating and critiquing our 21st century relationship to water; Migrations (2010) exploring the interface between human and natural migration The Fatherhood Project (2006), a celebration of fathers everywhere and Barred from Life (2004) that embodied the issue of wrongful conviction.

He earned a MA in Dance Performance at San Jose State University and an MFA in Choreography at Mills College. Former artistic director of DaaPo, based in NYC, David has choreographed, performed and taught throughout the United States, in Italy, Korea, Belize and China.

Based on training in Graham, Nikolais-Louis, Limon, Cunningham and Taylor contemporary techniques David teaches a joyful, athletic blend of their principles emphasizing release to gravity, shape and dynamics.

SCU Walk Across California class arrival at the entrance to Yosemite

For his class Walk Across CA (‘12, ‘14, ‘16 & ‘24) Popalisky walked with students from San Francisco to Yosemite to witness California's diverse human populations and natural environments.

David has danced for multiple contemporary dance companies including Tandy Beal and Company,Throne Dance Theatre throughout New York, Washington DC, Korea and Japan, Vanaver Caravan and the Bauer Dance Ensemble throughout the Midwest and East Coast.

David regularly presents on dance and culture at the Dance Studies Association international conferences and the AIRDanza and Association des Chercheurs en Dance in Salzburg, Austria, with publications in Theatre Topics and Times of Change: Artistic Perspectives and Cultural Crossings in Nineteenth Century Dance.

David received the Bernard J. Hubbard Collaboration Award from the SCU College of Arts and Sciences in 2013.

Select Scholarship Credits

Performance and Choreography

David Popalisky's quartet
Choreographer and Performer - From Aubergines to Oranges and Been There, Done … Not Yet.



 

David Popalisky and Michael Hazinski in Old Man Adagio
Choreographer and Performer - Old Man Adagio. SoloDuo Festival, New York, NY. (February 9, 2023)

 

Water Project dancers
Choreographer and Director - The Water Project. Collaboration with Scot Hanna-Weir, Derek Duarte, Kathy Aoki and Jeffrey Bracco. Santa Clara, CA. (October 1-3, 2021)

David Popalisky in his Walking with Walt choreographed work
Choreographer and Performer - Walking With Walt. Pasadena Dance Festival, Pasadena CA; Vision Series, San Francisco, CA; DUMBO Dance Festival, Brooklyn, NY. (2015)

 

 

 

 

David Popalisky in his choreographed work Return to HJ Junction
Choreographer - Return To HJ Junction. Vision Series, San Francisco, CA; Pasadena Dance Festival, Pasadena CA; DUMBO Dance Festival, Brooklyn, NY. (2012)

 

Migrations outdoor dance piece by David Popalisky with 5 female dancers carrying suitcases and boxes
Choreographer - Migrations. Santa Clara, CA. (September 2010)



 

Commissioned Choreographer - Sculpted Chaos. Wing and a Prayer Dance Company, Reno, NV. (2009)

David Popalisky in his choreographed work The Fatherhood Project
Choreographer and Performer - The Fatherhood Project. Santa Clara, CA, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (2006) and Marin Showcase Theatre, San Rafael, CA (2007)

 

David Popalisky in his choreographed work Barred From Life
Choreographer and Performer - premiere of Barred from Life. Santa Clara, CA (2004). Performances in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and San Diego, CA, Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL from 2004 - 2008. Awarded the American Association of Law Schools - Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Creativity Award in 2005.

Courses

Modern Contemporary Dance
Choreography
Introduction to Performance Collaboration
Dance History
Women in Dance History
African American Dance History
Walk Across CA
Physics of Dance
Images Choreography

Publications

David Popalisky presenting on Thanksgiving Day 2019 at the Times for Change: Transnational Migrations and Cultural Crossings in Nineteenth-Century Dance conference at Salzburg University in Austria.
David Popalisky presenting at the Times for Change: Transnational Migrations and Cultural Crossings in Nineteenth-Century Dance conference at Salzburg University in Austria (Fall 2019)

A collaboration with SCU's Center for Arts and Humanities Artist-in-Residence Gary Smith (Summer 2019)