June Dance 2024

G-Quan Booker is a dancer, poet, rapper and actor. Through his work as a teacher of Hip Hop Arts, he has provided guidance to many youth in the upstate New York region as well as during his 6 months in Thailand. G-Quan is one of the founders of the Hip Hop group GCF (which stands for “Greatest Common Factor”). In the past few years, G-Quan has taught at the Community Unity Music Education Program, Jillian’s Drawers, The Finger Lakes Residential Center, as well at the Auburn Public Theater and Wells College. Most recently, he works with youth in the After School program at Southside Community Center, a historical center of the vibrant Black neighborhood that was part of the Underground Railroad in Ithaca, NY.

Rik Daniels was born and raised in Bronx, NY. He was a poster child for the March of Dimes and later appeared on “Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt” and “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!” for his achievements as a NYC High School Champion Gymnast. He went on to become a 7-time NCAA All American on pommel horse, parallel bars, and still rings.

In 2012, for greater impact and self-actualization, beyond his “day jobs” and speaking engagements, Rik began dancing, modeling and performance art. He was a principle dancer in Michael Franti and Spearhead’s “Once a Day” music video and has worked on several projects funded by the New York State DanceForce.

Rik is honored to be a company member with Omnium Circus, which fosters enlightenment and inclusion with every production! Recent projects include “Nutcracker Twist, an Enchanted Journey”, a collaboration of CirqOvation and Symphoria, of Syracuse, NY; the work in progress showing at Triphammer Arts of “Tap Translations”, his learning to tap with his hands under the skillful heartening guidance of Sophie Trowbridge; as well as “Spankbox”, spearheaded by Georgia based Jessica Blinkhorn, created for the full sexual expressions of people with disabilities in advocating for representation, equity and justice!

Rik lives with his loving and supportive husband, Marc, and their two pets, Rosey and Lillie, and is eternally grateful to God and his Mom for blessing him with such a remarkable life! He can be found and contacted at: RikDanielsPerformer.com

Kathy Lucas is a dancer who has also been serving the Ithaca community as a holistic movement coach for over 10 years. Seeking to fuse various styles of dance to strength training, she has pioneered a series of programs that include Steel Club Tango, Steel Club Cabaret (inspired by the choreography of Bob Fosse), and dance-inspired flow. Kathy’s approach is informed by her years spent living and studying movement and dance in the United States; Guinea and Senegal, West Africa; and Japan. A collaborator at heart, Kathy has had the great pleasure of co-producing and facilitating with local dancer, Megan Omohundro for the dance stories “Masters of Movement as told by we, us, them”, a series of performances by Black dancers exploring the racial trauma of iconic Black Americans and how that trauma affects the present day. She has co-produced and collaborated with dance artist, Jim Self for June Dance 2022 and 2023 as well as Speaking Dancewise 2023. Kathy is a co-founder and collaborator of 5 Sisters Performing Arts, Ithaca NY where she teaches several fusion-style dance classes and facilitates monthly meetups of movement and storytelling through grief and loss. She graduated with a theatre and dance focus from SUNY Brockport, and locally, Kathy has produced, choreographed, and performed in a variety of settings for dance projects.

Aimee Rials received her Master’s of Fine Arts in dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Most recently she was a 2022 recipient of the Choreographers Initiative award through NYS DanceForce and NY Council on the Arts. Her choreographic work has been performed at The Kitchen Theatre, Gibney Center, 92Y’s Harkness Dance Center, Symphony Space, Dixon Place, Triskelion Arts, Merce Cunningham Studio, DUMBO Dance Festival, Cool New York Dance Festival, Washington University’s Edison Theater, Ithaca College, Huntingdon College, and the Depot Theater. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Buffalo, Huntingdon College, youarehere dance company in St. Louis, and We Are Artists in Virginia. As a performer, Aimee has worked with Trebien Pollard’s Residue Dance Theater, Lauren Hale Dance and Beliz Demircioglu while in residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Aimee is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Ithaca College.

A long-time independent filmmaker and video maker, Ithaca-based Marilyn Rivchin has made numerous political and social documentaries as well as documentary and experimental projects, collaborating with a variety of artists including choreographers and dancers, theater directors, musicians and craftspeople. While teaching media production at Cornell for 30 plus years, she worked on performances with many of her theater and dance colleagues, including choreographer/dancer Jim Self. Creating video projection for live stage performance is a favorite, if challenging, medium. This is the first time their collaboration puts her on stage with Jim as both camerawoman and performer.

Jim Self, described as a “post-modern bad boy” and a “uniquely eccentric artist,” by the Village Voice works in dance, painting, performance, writing, and installation. A New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) winner, and Cornell dance faculty from 1989- 2014, he’s been a member of the NYS DanceForce since 2007. In 2021 he created June Dance at the Cherry in Ithaca featuring artists from Tompkins County and NY State.

Self danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (1976-1979), choreographed and performed with Robert Wilson / Byrd Hoffman School for Byrds, founded the touring company Jim Self and Dancers, and with Frank Moore created BEEHIVE, a film and ballet depicting the stories of a worker bee and a drone. His work has been commissioned by the Boston Ballet, the Rome Opera Ballet, American Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop, the Serious Fun! Festival, Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d’Angers/France, WerkCentrumDans/Rotterdam, Sundance Institute/Ballet West, and Cornell University

Born in the Dominican Republic to a family of movers, Indira’s first language is dance. Indira is a modern-contemporary mover and choreographer and has produced pieces for collaborative local performances including the Infinity in a Box exhibit at the Tompkins County Public Library, and Visceral, hosted by the Cherry Arts Center. She is a 2022 NYS DanceForce Choreographers’ Initiative recipient, where, alongside mentor, Juana Cala of Flamenco Vivo, she explored ways of merging Modern and Flamenco dance styles. Most recently, Indira is a student and participant in Kathy Lucas’ Grief Project where she focused on processing grief through movement while building understanding, self-awareness, and healing. Indira is proudly one of five founding members of 5SISTERS Performing Arts, July 2022, Ithaca NY.

Danielle De Vito grew up just outside of NYC and was introduced to the production side of the performing arts at her high school’s performing arts curriculum program, PACE. She continued her studies at The American University in Washington DC, majoring in both Film and Dance Production. Since graduating in 2020, Danielle has worked at the American Dance Festival and with numerous dance and theater companies doing Production Stage Management and Company Management. These include: Passion Fruit Dance Company, Pilobolus, Parsons Dance, Dorrance Dance, LayeRythm, and One Year Lease Theater. Danielle loves how her work allows her to see dance & the performing arts from a wide range of styles and gets to travel the world.

Born and Raised in Lowell MA, Elmer Martinez (ElmStreet) has been getting funky since 1996. Growing up a choir singer and percussionist, music was always around. Commencing his official dance training in 2011 at age 14, he has gone on to gain experience in a multitude of afrocentric movement forms as well as musical theater. His focus landed within the universe of Funk, House, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Street and Club/Social dances. While studying for his BFA in Theater Design/Studies with a minor in Dance at Emerson College (’19), Elmer continued to develop his training background in Ballet, Modern, Improv, House, Breakin, Hip-Hop, Locking, Popping and improvisational Latin Ballroom in class and the underground club parties of Boston and New York. Around this time he started DJing and diving deeper into music history.

Elmer became the Production Manager at Green Street Studios during his senior year of undergrad where he designed, danced and produced work in Cambridge, MA. This, as well as producing community events rooted in Hip-Hop culture from Open Mics- to Cyphers- to Battles, large-scale conventions and workshops. At Emerson, he founded the Hip-Hop Society in 2019, which continues to develop hip-hop programming and art projects on the Boston campus in order to preserve the integrity of black arts representation. After graduating, Elmer moved to New York City as a Professional Production Apprentice for Bill T. Jones’s New York Live Arts dance theater. After his departure he continued to freelance as a Lighting Designer/Technician for dance companies and festivals including The Yard, theaters and special events between New York and Massachusetts, until his last pre-covid assignment at New York Theater Workshop off-Broadway. All this while dancing, producing, judging and teaching for the underground Hip-Hop and House Dance community locally and internationally. Since moving home to Massachusetts due to covid, Elmer has taken to publishing his poetry, modeling, hosting his live podcast Cultural Convos, training in dance, meditation, as well as producing and selling multimedia art projects. He has had the opportunity to teach lighting and dance workshops and programs through Brighter Boston, Harvard University and UMass Lowell during the pandemic among so many other art adventures.

Elmer is currently a part time faculty member at Urbanity Dance teaching hip-hop and is excited to serve as the Lighting Designer for Passionfruit Dance Company. As a facilitator Elmer focuses on incorporating mindfulness, meditation, and self empowerment in his sessions. He feels that as movers we are always in the pursuit of releasing the inner funk, and finding the permission within ourselves to get free while building an informed community. Elmer was dubbed ElmStreet by a mentor during his time in school, which serves as his street art alias. He is currently based in Somerville, MA and produces work out of his room, “The Nook” which he is curating into a group art show space this spring.