FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Solo dance performance to be given at Bates

LEWISTON, Maine -- An independent choreographer and member of the New York based Creach/Koester Dance Company will give a solo dance performance at Bates College on Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

Lionel Popkin, a visiting member of the Bates College dance faculty, will perform two pieces in an informal 40-minute presentation, "Lionel At-Large." His performance will include "Are You Done Yet?," set in an absurdist and humorous world housed with furniture made entirely from newspapers, and "Lost Verses," a scored improvisation which investigates the adaptation of movement when things spiral out of control.

Currently a master of fine arts candidate and teaching assistant at Bennington College, Popkin holds a bachelor of arts in dance from Oberlin College. From 1992-96, he perforomed as a member of the Seattle-based Stephanie Skura Dance Company and also served as its administrative director.

Popkin's own work was nominated for a Seattle dance and performance award in 1996 and has been performed throughout Seattle, including the On The Boards' Northwest New Works Festival. A certified teacher of the Skinner releasing technique, he was a member of the faculty of the 1997 Annual Summer Releasing Intensive in Seattle.