MARTELL RUFFIN (Dancer, pronouns: he/him), from Chicago, IL, began his formal dance training at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago in 2009. He attended Chicago High School for the Arts under then-director Lisa Johnson-Willingham, former dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Martell has been awarded dance scholarship to intensives at Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Complexions and received first place in the all-city NAACP ACT-SO Competition 2011. Martell trained at The Ailey School as a scholarship student and has performed works by Lisa Johnson-Willingham, Earl Mosley, George Faison, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Matthew Rushing, Jae Man Joo, Robert Battle, and Alvin Ailey. Martell has also been seen in the Poison Girl Christian Dior commercial for women's fragrance and an Urban Outfitters commercial for music artist Samantha Urbani. Martell has completed his two years with Ailey II and is now contributing Choreographer and Performer for Triptych (Eyes of One Another), an Opera based on Robert Mappethorpe. Martell joined A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in 2020.  

Photo by Carrie Schneider.