Whenever Tatiana Desardouin has found something lacking in the dance world, she has created a space for it to flourish, growing out of her own unique experiences.
Born and raised in Switzerland and now living in New York City, she has brought her love of dance all over the world along with a message of respect and appreciation of those who have paved the way and hip-hop dance’s beginning. “My Swiss friends or non-Black friends don’t really know me (as of my experience of being Black in Switzerland), but I know everything about them because of systemic racism. People need to see more than themselves. I witness people there dancing all the time without being conscious that they are the face of oppression doing styles that originated with African people,” she pointed out. “The ancestors are why those styles exist. It is what we could save from our African culture in the transatlantic slave trade. That pain leftover from that, consciously and unconsciously, mixed with joy (as in dance, music, and more) is Black culture.”
Black Liberation and Dance
That deep historical significance is one of the main reasons why she believes teaching the culture behind the dance is imperative and cannot be separated from the mental health of Black dancers specifically. When Desardouin came to Cleveland, Ohio to teach a workshop as part of the city’s annual battle event where she was a judge, Lords of the Land II, in 2022, she stressed that you cannot separate Black culture from Black liberation, that all are welcome to dance, but those who are not Black are guests of the dance culture created by those of African descent.
“Our music and dance create the sound that carries the messages through time until now, messages of liberation for the Black community, which takes many shapes in movements from within wherever it happens. The same structure is evident in the Caribbean for the same reasons,” noted Desardouin, who is Haitian. “Music there is mixed with the same issue, liberation. They have specific dance styles, but the why is the same, a response to colonization.”
She not only welcomes guests but recognizes that she too is a guest in some respects. “There are layers to it. To some degree, I am a guest, but not at the same level as a non-white person. As you move further and further from New York, you become a guest from hip-hop dance’s origin,” she explained. “Being Haitian and Black connects me deeply to the Black African American culture, but there are also specific aspects to being born in the U.S., which I am not. Having lived internationally, I understand how trauma has led to different dance styles, depending on the country. We can extend Africa to the Caribbean and the U.S. Each will have their own styles, but there is a historical connection originating on the same continent.”
Creating Spaces
Desardouin began her dance journey with a group called South Angels when she was a teenager in Geneva and not long after, started competing in multiple countries, while also earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in adult education from Université de Genève. In addition to winning several competitions in Switzerland, she earned victories in France, Italy, Denmark, and Canada.
She began teaching in 2005 and would go on to teach at Swiss dance companies L’Estuaire (established in 1995 based on the relationship between human beings and their environment) and Alias (created in 1994, performing worldwide with a focus on challenging everyday conventions and thoughts). Since 2007, she has been a member of JAIA, a Geneva-based nonprofit that promotes hip-hop culture through workshops and competitions. Desardouin and Loïc Dinga open a dance school in Geneva, Le Centre Hip-Hop in 2010 and two years later, she was one of four co-creators of Continuum, the first hip-hop dance company in Geneva.
Desardouin moved to New York in 2016 and that year founded the company she still runs today, the Passion Fruit Dance Company, with Lauriane Ogay, Nubian Néné and Lobel. It is a project-based company where she sometimes includes other dancers and collaborators from different artistic mediums. “The original motivation for starting Passion Fruit was frustration,” she admitted. “I always wanted to have a dance company that would perform for sure, but I wanted the content and mission to start with what is missing in the community. I set out to bring that awareness in an artistic way.”
She is thankful to have a particularly special bond with those like Ogay and Néné, who, like her, were not born in the U.S. ”I really want to thank them for being here by my side in my life and my artistic life. It’s a blessing to have them,” she said affectionately. With her work continuing to be inspired by those close to her, Desardouin was awarded both The Vilcek Foundation Prizes for Creative Promise in Dance and the Bessie Juried Award, which recognizes a choreographer with interesting and exciting ideas in dance in New York City, in 2022.
“Teaching dance with the cultural education part merged everything that I believe in, who I am, and what I want to see within me and the community,” she further explained. “Over time, I got clarity how to accomplish that. In Geneva, there was a disconnect of the non-European African diaspora from the surrounding Swiss people’s understanding of context and culture. Even I didn’t realize how much I needed to teach the concept of hip-hop. I taught the steps, maybe a little bit of history, the who and where, but not the depth of why. Since 2015, the why is what I wanted to focus on. Personal growth comes from the why.”
The Groove and Community
Desardouin developed a teaching method called ‘technique within your groove” that brings together her dance and values. “Groove carries the why and the history. It is not just an aesthetic. It comes from joy and pain. That pain carries a special history, Black history ingrained in slavery. That joy ingrained in the richness of countless African and indigenous cultures. It wouldn’t even exist without that pain and joy, which appeared in music first (voices, rhythms, sounds) and then dance,” she described. “Groove is an auditory and physical manifestation of the Black experience. It comes through movement, carrying the history that is good and bad. It is my way to engage in the conversation about what constitutes groove.” Her 2022 Bessie Juried Award was based on her “groove” embracing the relationship between time and an individual’s true nature.
Groove is when a dancer uses their natural movements with a greater consciousness of their body, which may seem unnatural at first, but eventually frees the body to use multiple body parts in tune with musicality and freestyle while staying true to the essence of the dance style. “There was a pervading idea in Europe that the groove is not that important but is more of an aesthetic. Dancers could do the moves, but something was lacking. There was a view that ‘grooving is easy, just something you do,’ yet they could not actually do it. It was more performative and lacking,” she commented. “People decided that they could groove their way, but it was not really attached to Blackness. It is a common term, but those using it are not necessarily connecting it to full Blackness, only to the aesthetic of Blackness.”
She believes that correlation between the cultural aspect of all artistic forms and the building of a community to be inseparable. “The sense of connection is important, and I had seen too much disconnection around me, people not knowing the context and the why, which only furthers the disconnection. Look inward, where you came from, what your personal history is, and how it impacts others, especially if you are not Black, and what your standing in that culture is,” she recommended. “You must look at that history, even if it is difficult. That gives you the ability to listen and now we see through together and build a community which is healthier.”
Desardouin seeks to bring together various forms of artists to build together through her event called « Les 5 sens » meaning « The 5 senses » in English. “We encourage ensemble parties where we invite people of all artistic backgrounds to attend or for example, bring a street dance to a gallery. That way we experience one another’s culture and build bridges between different communities, art forms, and generations,” she shared. “That is a transactional way of connecting people. Kids come with parents or friends; parents bring their children. We want to break all the separations, crossovers, and transversals.”
“Bringing people together can include all five senses, which can include foods, smells, and artistic performances. We have held events where there was drawing during the party, local designers had stands to sell their stuff, dancers from multiple styles took the floor, and we brought together different music like jazz and hip hop,” she stated. “The energy and tradition for this culture is all interconnected, but no so in many people’s minds.”
Healing and Dance
Desardouin believes that though there is some inherent healing that happens in dance, addressing mental health issues and concerns require intentionality. “I have built strong relationships and cultivated with like-minded people who support one another and take the time to check in. It is important to have friends like that. As instructors, we need to cultivate the dialogue and not only about the movements, but sometimes just sit down and talk things through,” she communicated. “That could help another person in the room and then the movements make more sense because the intention is different. We are not professional therapists, but the healing component of dancing is not enough by itself. Some people dance all the time and still take their own lives.”
“I strongly believe that dance does help a healing process, but how do we facilitate that to be a real healing tool for people, especially beginners? It helps when there is a conversation. People are not aware of how to react to their bodies in the healing process. It is possible for a person’s dance to be disconnected from their body, which often starts in the brain,” she continued.
Just as dance cannot be separated from the culture that created it, healing in dance is intertwined with Black liberation. “Healing through street dance happened for me when I was honest with my feelings that Black people were not heard within their own culture and addressing it. Hopefully that is the start of a deeper healing for other Black folks,” she remarked. “When they felt seen, protected, elevated, and supported, it is liberating. That is what it did for me, so I try to lead by example. When we help one person get the chance to truly open their bodies, we contribute to their healing process even if we don’t know their specific need.”
Liberation is an ongoing process that builds upon itself. “There was a lot of healing for me to speak the truth about my Haitian background, being a slave descendant of people who were the first Black nation to free themselves,” she said proudly. “Hip hop is about freedom. It became something that I carried. Doing it actively is a healing process. I looked inward to what I was deconstructing. Growing up in Switzerland, I didn’t learn about myself because of all the whiteness around me. My Haitian community in Geneva helped me learn about our culture and helped me stay connected with my identity and origin. My parents made sure of it, but once I was outside that bubble, it was nothing but whiteness around I had to find myself in it.”
She believes people often come to dance in need of healing so all those who are part of the dance community can play a role in uplifting others. “What does the idea of support ultimately mean? Show up for others, but with reciprocity. It needs to be OK to ask a person how they are really doing and investing that time in them. I don’t think we are there yet,” she acknowledged. “I don’t think most of us are ready to be that vulnerable unless we do it in our dance. It is challenging to be that vulnerable outside of the dance and is why a lot of us dance a lot. It is not like a therapy where it will heal you. It will support you in the healing process, but it can’t be only that. There are so many things involved like the business/making a living aspect that move us away from the pure, healthy part of dancing.”
Lastly, she encourages those truly interested in healing to understand the spiritual connection between mind and body in dance. “As instructors, we must help a student get connected to their body so that it is supporting them; otherwise, dance may be useless. Some have that natural ability to get what they need, but others can’t. It takes maturity, crafting your body, knowing your body. Conversation can support dance. It helps people to open up more. Some people don’t get to talk like that at all,” she communicated.
“There is a spiritual component of dance, whether you want it or not. Are you imposing your way of religion? No. You are touching the core of someone else’s beliefs. How do you give that space to that person to regroup or be one with themselves. How can they meditate? How do they communicate with God or elements?” she asked. “Spirituality is the intention behind the movements. You cannot remove that. There is so much attached to a specific move. You may not realize what you are opening. It is something we must accept even if is not the same as ours. If you are not teaching with the awareness of the existence of that spiritual component, what are you teaching? I don’t have all the answers though. I’m myself trying to figure out a way to make people aware of it”.