Passion Fruit Dance Company - Tatiana Desardouin

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Passion Fruit Dance Company is a Street, Club dance and educational company founded in 2016, composed of Tatiana Desardouin (Haitian & Swiss, founder, artistic director, choreographer), Lauriane Ogay (Swiss) and Mai Lê Hô (French-Vietnamese). Its mission is to promote the authenticity of street dance and clubbing styles, Hip Hop and house cultures and their black heritage, as well as its contribution to society, by exploring different social problems through their dance pieces and artistic practices. Passion Fruit had the opportunity to work as educators using “Passion Fruit Seeds – Focus on the Youth” program at the Yerbabruja Arts Center (Long Island City), in Switzerland for the City of Geneva with the “Passion Fruit Seeds: Hip-Hop culture, its foundations and its uprooting” program and at the Connecticut College with the “Passion fruit Seeds: Focus On Black Excellence” program. They performed the piece “Dance Within Your Dance” in places such as at The Apollo Theater, Summerstage, Harlem Stage, Jacob’s pillow, the New Victory Theater, BAAD!, LOHH, Joe’s Pub, 92Y, Musikfest and abroad (in Canada at the M.A.I (MTL) and in Switzerland at the “Outside” festival (Neuchatel). They performed the piece “Trapped” at the Bridge Street Theater, Lincoln Center, and the Guggenheim. Passion Fruit Dance Company was recently featured in The New Yorker magazine (April 2021). Tatiana Desardouin was selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 2020 “25 to Watch.”, features in Harper’s Bazaar (2021) and is one of the winners of the Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise in Dance (2022).

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Tatiana Desardouin

Of Haitian origin, born and raised in Switzerland,

Tatiana is a professional dancer, dance instructor, dance consultant, choreographer, organizer, curator, with a Master degree as adult educator and a Bachelor in Psychology (University of Geneva). She had the opportunity to travel to judge competitions, compete and  teach around the world.

 Tatiana is the director and choreographer of Passion Fruit Dance Company, a street dance theater and educational company she founded in 2016. The collective has performed in venues such as The Guggenheim, the Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theater, Summerstage, Jacob’s Pillow, the New Victory Theater, BAAD!, Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival, Joe’s Pub, 92Y, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, MASS MoCA and abroad (Canada and Switzerland).

Tatiana was selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 2020 “25 to Watch” , was featured in the New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar magazine and recently was awarded by the Vilcek Foundation Prizes for Creative Promise in Dance 2022.

Very involved in the growth of the swiss hip-hop scene, Tatiana has been teaching, mentoring organizing parties, events and workshops since 2005, had her own dance school “Le Centre Hip-Hop”. In 2012, she was one of the four founders of the first Hip-Hop dance company in Geneva called “Continuum”.

She developed her own teaching method called “Technique Within Your Groove” method. She taught at EXPG NYC, Broadway Dance Center. As a guest artist and adjunct professor she taught in universities such as Dartmouth University, the American University, the Connecticut College, Springfield College and Mount Holyoke University.

Tatiana is currently member of 92Y’s faculty. Tatiana is one of the core dancers of the pioneering street dance theater company Rennie Harris Puremovement  since 2016. She is also part of the Nefer Global Movement collective,a core member of LayeRhythm Experiment ensemble and part of the Black Dancing Bodies project.

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Social media handles:

IG: @tatianadesardouin

FB: Passion Fruit Dance Company

FB: Tatiana Desardouin

 

For any inquiries,  contact:

Booking agent & Production Stage Manager, Danielle De Vito thedanielledevito@gmail.com

Artistic Director & Choreographer, Tatiana Desardouin  Passionfruitdanceco@gmail.com

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Press Quote 

“This is one of the best street dance shows I’ve seen in the last few years!!! A perfect example of how authentic street dance can do more than just entertain in the theatre setting”
Crazy Smooth (artistic director of Bboyizm Dance Company)

“I discovered Passion Fruit at the Bronx Showcase one year during APAP and after seeing so many showings that weekend at the end Passion Fruit rose to top of my list as one of the most unique performances. They have incredible feminine energy mixed with pure talent and authenticity. They also totally have their own movement practice going on. I immediately booked them for the Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Series. While at the Pillow they taught a 10 minute hip-hop class to the audience and worked with a local b-boy group with such kindness and enthusiasm. It is a joy to work with artists like Passion Fruit.”
Ariana Brawley, Associate Producer, Jacob’s Pillow

“Passion Fruit vividly push hip-hop’s inherent capacity to articulate important ideas in a powerful and joyous ensemble work”
Simon Dove, Curator, Crossing the Lines Festival

“After you watch Passion Fruit Dance Company perform, you’ll never listen to house music the same way again. Their dances move with and then beyond the beats to explore issues within the hip-hop and dance communities: competition, creativity, the impact of Black and African diaspora cultures, the generosity of hip-hop and its inclusion of whoever has the determination and inspiration to stay with it and make it their own.”
Jane Gabriels, Ph.D, Pepatián

“Tatiana Desardouin and the Passion Fruit Dance Company are one of the most exciting young dance companies I’ve seen in the past few years.  The company, under Ms. Desardouin’s direction, is exploring innovative ways to bring together traditional and contemporary movement languages, that offer audiences a new lens by which to enjoy a dance concert in 2018!”
George Emilio Sanchez
Performance Artist
Chairperson of Performing and Creative Arts
College of Staten Island/CUNY

“Tatiana Desardouin and Passion Fruit Dance Company have an easy, relaxed style that harvests all the cool and command of classic hip hop and smartly position it present day onto a theater stage with an all female group. The quiet confidence and subtly of the choreography is deepened by the keen performers who individually hold their own and as a group hold it down.”
Joseph Hall, Deputy Director
BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

“Tatiana’s work is soulful, full of the complexity and joy that exists in the world, the clubs and our hearts . A great new voice has arrived. BRAVO”
Adesola Osakalumi
Fela, Equus, Syncing Ink, Othello (Movement Director)

“The way you dance tells me how comfortable you are in your own body, how free you are moving through the world. It requires you to accept the idea that people might see into you.”
Tatiana Desardouin, Passion Fruit Dance Company.
The New York Times, “Watch These Dancers Find Spontaneity in the Cirlce” by James Thomas
Full article : https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/07/style/layerhythm-street-dance.html?smid=fb-share