UCLA dance professor premieres 'Inflatable Trio'

UCLA’s Lionel Popkin has choreographed a new work, "Inflatable Trio," that's set to be performed Feb. 23-25 at at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Performed on and around an inflatable plastic living room set, "Inflatable Trio" looks at the ways we attempt to orient ourselves within ever-changing domestic, social and environmental landscapes. As the elements of a family room are repeatedly deflated, dismantled and re-formed, three dancers persist, react and cope. Each, in turn, upends — and is upended by — the objects, people and situations that surround them in this domestic drama expanded beyond walls.

Popkin serves as both a professor of dance as well as chair of the world arts and culture department at UCLA. He has had his choreography presented nationally and internationally at numerous venues, including DanspaceProject Abrons Arts Center and Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, the Getty Museum, REDCAT, and Highways in Los Angeles, the Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Series, and the Guongdong Modern Dance Festival in Guongzhou China.