Year: 2025-2026
DanceForce Member: Jim Self
Partnering DanceForce Member: Ivan Sygoda
Artists: Troy Lingelbach; Brin Schoellkopf; Jim Self
Community Partners: Cherry Arts Space; Circus Culture; Hupstate Circus Festival
Audience: 240
County: Tompkins
DanceForce Project 2025/26 will be in two parts including a creative residency with Brooklyn based aerial dancer Troy Lingelbach, and June Dance 2026 performances at the Cherry Arts featuring Tompkins County artists.
Troy Lingelbach is an exceptional aerial dancer and burlesque artist whose work blends circus, storytelling and aerial dance forms.The residency will be developing two projects starting in mid- August, 2025. One will be collaborating with Brin Schoellkopf of ‘People Watching Collective’, to storyboard, fine tune, and prepare for touring ‘International Lover’, Troy’s standout in-progress solo work known for its nuanced musicality and powerful, yet humble presence. Brin is an excellent outside eye, utilizing their background in Circus, Burlesque, and the Post-Modern Dance form, Contact Improvisation.
The other aspect of the residency is a completely new work called ‘Semilla’, and is very different than ‘International Lover’. It is based in nature, and will be researched and starting to build in mid- September, 2025. Troyโs past work chronicles journeys of discovery within the movement arts as well as investigations of gender and sexual expressions. This project is more meditative and ritualistic, and serves to build and showcase another side of Troyโs psyche and personality. It inhabits a truly explorative and unknown realm of creative work, and will surely be a unique journey into working with trees and planting seeds, in all senses. Ithaca had the great pleasure of seeing a version of โInternational Loverโ for June Dance 2025. Both works will be presented at HupState Circus 2026, bringing fresh new innovations and compelling stories to Tompkins County. The residency includes two informal showings and two workshops, reaching up to 100 people.
Showcasing Tompkins County talent, 4 -5 performer/choreographers will be selected from Ithaca’s own movement artists for June Dance 2026 at the Cherry – June 1-7, 2026. Choreographers and artists of different genres will be invited to present pieces on subjects of their choice. Works will include a wide range of ages and demographics. June Dance has had great success with participants from all age decades (20’s though 70’s). The exact lineup will be finalized by February of 2026. Two performances will host up to 140 people.
June Dance at the Cherry was born in 2021 as the world slowly emerged from the pandemic isolation. It continues to be a vital and diverse venue for movement artists of all persuasions to present their ideas, experiment, and engage with the public.
Troy Lingelbach’s residency and June Dance 2026 continues an active strategy of celebrating and supporting Tompkins County artists, while hosting guest movement artists of exceptional quality. Having Troy as a multiple-time visiting artist is one the best embodiments of this strategy. It allows for real, lasting and valuable relationships with the dance, circus, and performance-art communities that cannot be over-stated.