Choreographer Tatiana Desardouin Awarded $50,000 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance

Tatiana Desardouin is the founder, choreographer, and artistic director of Passion Fruit Dance Organization. She gets a 2022 Vilcek Prize for Inventive Guarantee in Dance for her presentation of hip-hop and house dance that provides the vernacular custom of these genres in the Black diaspora to her operate.

The Vilcek Foundation Prizes are awarded each year in recognition and celebration of the contributions of immigrants in the arts and humanities and in biomedical science in the United States. The prizes provide the Vilcek Foundation’s mission to accept and honor the positive influence of immigration on arts, tradition, and society. Recipients of the Vilcek Prizes for Resourceful Assure each get a commemorative trophy and an unrestricted cash award of $50,000.

Desardouin’s identification and knowledge as a Swiss-born Haitian lady and a Black woman are vital components of her function. “The basis of my art is my deep determination to recognizing and preserving all of Black culture’s contributions to dance and modern society,” claims Desardouin. “I imagine that dance is a supply of empowerment that can unify people although developing personal self esteem and identities.”

Says Vilcek Basis President Rick Kinsel, “We rejoice Desardouin’s management in hip-hop and household dance for the impact her operate has on the broader landscape of modern dance. Her engagement with the complicated histories of these genres informs all her get the job done, and has a profound outcome on pupils and audiences.”

As a younger grownup, Desardouin launched Geneva’s first hip-hop dance university and organization, Le Centre Hip-Hop, and became a member and curator with JAIA-a Geneva-primarily based nonprofit centered on producing and advertising and marketing hip-hop dance and society via workshops, lessons, and competitions.

Immediately after earning levels in psychology and training, Desardouin immigrated to the United States in 2016, settling in Brooklyn, New York. She established Passion Fruit Dance Firm with the mission of developing dance and instructional plans that investigate the human working experience, handle social concerns, and encourage younger artists to discover their voice.

In addition to her leadership with Passion Fruit Dance Enterprise, Desardouin is an artist in home at the 92Y she is a single of the main dancers of Rennie Harris Puremovement, and a main member of LayeRhythm Experiment Business. Desardouin has received awards for her performances at key hip-hop and residence dance competitions throughout Europe and the United States.

Desardouin is passionate about the responsibility she feels to share with her pupils and audiences the historical past and traditions that led to the advancement of hip-hop and household dance. She applies her formal instruction in training to the layout of her workshops and performances.

“For me, it is extra than just the motion,” she suggests. “The objective is to be a culture bearer.”

Go through far more about Desardouin at the Vilcek Foundation: Tatiana Desardouin: “The objective is to be a lifestyle bearer.”