Tatiana Desardouin

Of Haitian lineage, Tatiana Desardouin was born and raised in Switzerland and is based in New York. She is a professional dancer, choreographer, instructor, consultant, organizer, and curator, with a master’s degree in adult education and a bachelor’s degree in psychology (University of Geneva).

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  • Tatiana has had the opportunity to judge competitions, compete, and teach around the world. She is the director and choreographer of Passion Fruit Dance Company, a street dance theater and educational company she founded in 2016. The company has performed in venues such as the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theater, SummerStage, Jacob’s Pillow, New Victory Theater, BAAD!, Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival, Joe’s Pub, 92Y, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, MASS MoCA, and abroad in Canada and Switzerland. Desardouin was selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 2020 “25 to Watch,” was featured in The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar magazines, and recently was awarded the Vilcek Foundation’s Prize for Creative Promise in Dance. Deeply involved in the growth of the Swiss hip-hop scene, Desardouin has been teaching, mentoring, and organizing events and workshops there since 2005. She established her own dance school, Le Centre Hip-Hop, and in 2012 was one of the four founders of Continuum—the first hip-hop dance company in Geneva. Desardouin developed her own teaching method, “Technique Within Your Groove,” taught at EXPG NYC and the Broadway Dance Center. As a guest artist and adjunct professor, she has taught at colleges and universities including Dartmouth, American University, Connecticut College, Springfield College, and Mount Holyoke, and is currently a member of 92Y’s faculty. Since 2016, Desardouin has been one of the core dancers of the pioneering street dance theater company Rennie Harris Puremovement. 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.

Passion Fruit Dance Company

Passion Fruit Dance Company is a street & club dance and educational company founded in 2016, composed of Tatiana Desardouin (Haitian & Swiss, founder, artistic director, chorographer), Laurianne Ogay (Swiss), and Mai Lê Hô (French-Vietnamese), Nubian Néné (Canadian/haitian), and Lobel (Korean).

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  • 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 their contributions to society—by exploring different social problems through dance pieces and artistic practices. Passion Fruit had the opportunity to work as educators using the Passion Fruit Seed–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 Uprooting program, and at Connecticut College with the Passion Fruit Seeds: Focus on Black Excellence program. They performed the piece Dance Within Your Dance at venues including the Apollo Theater, SummerStage, Harlem Stage, Jacob’s Pillow, the New Victory Theater, BAAD!, LOHH, Joe’s Pub, and 92Y, and in Canada at the M.A.I. (MTL) and at Switzerland’s Outside Festival (Neuchatel). The company performed Trapped at Lincoln Center, Bridge Street Theater, the Guggenheim and BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn. Passion Fruit was featured in The New Yorker magazine.