Biography
Rima Pipoyan is a choreographer, director and dancer based in Armenia. She is one of the pioneers of modern ballet and contemporary dance in her country. Her choreographic works have been presented in Italy, Spain, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Belarus, Germany, Poland, Moldova, Georgia, Belgium, Portugal, etc.
Rima Pipoyan graduated from the Yerevan State College of Choreography as a dance teacher and ballet dancer with honours. In 2008 she started teaching classical and historical dance, and choreography at the same College. In 2012 she graduated in Choreography from Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography with honours receiving Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. Since 2012 she has taught dance and curated the course of ‘Choreographic direction’ at her Alma Maters.
She is the CEO and founder of the Choreography Development Foundation (2017) which aims to support the development of contemporary dance and modern ballet in Armenia. Since 2020 she has been the head of the Modern Dance Department at Yerevan State Choreographic College. The department was created by her initiation. She lectures in modern dance at the Armenian State Pedagogical University since 2018.
She was a resident artist in Berlin at Akademie Der Kunste in 2016-2017, in Venice at La Biennale di Venezia in 2019, in Brussels at Villa Empain in 2021.
Currently, Pipoyan is doing a PHD in the field of art. She has successfully staged numerous choreographic pieces and full length performances among them: That’s by falling that we rise, Mediaeval images, La Vita Nuova, Sinful passions, Hours of Visions, Triptych, etc. During her touring she has met renowned artists such as Mats Ek, Anna Laguna, Akram Khan, Ohad Naharin, Alonso King and many others.
Her Woman before decision making solo performance has been performed in renowned festivals and contests around the world and has received various awards and prizes. In 2020 she directed YEL, a short dance film, which won 4 prizes as a Best Dance Film and was presented in 15 official selections from dance film festivals from all over the world.