David J. Popalisky
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, Belize 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.
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
Commissioned Choreographer - Sculpted Chaos. Wing and a Prayer Dance Company, Reno, NV. (2009)
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
- "Ballet Father Fineses Family Finances." Contributed chapter. Times of Change: Artistic Perspectives and Cultural Crossings in Nineteenth Century Dance. Piretti Editore, Milano, Italy 2023.