Rima Pipoyan is an enthusiastic  choreographer, director, dancer based in Yerevan, Armenia.  She is one of the pioneers of modern ballet and contemporary dance in Armenia. Selflessly following her passion from childhood, Rima never settles. 

“I knew I was going to become a professional dancer, when I first saw the “Swan Lake” ballet on the TV. I was three years old then,” says Rima with an excitement. “My parents have tried taking me to many different dancing clubs while I was a child, fortunately I liked nothing but the professional ballet,” Rima continues.

In 2006 she graduated from the Yerevan State College of Choreography as a dance teacher and a ballet dancer with honors. Starting from 2008 she is teaching at the same College as a classical dance, characteristic and historical dance teacher, as well as teaching choreography.

In 2012 she graduated Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinematography as a choreographer with honors receiving Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. Since 2012 she teaches dance and curates the course of “Choreography directing” at her Alma maters.

As a choreographer Rima has started her career in her early 16. “The years of my studies were the time when my active creative life sprang up. I was cooperating with people from different spheres, with different backgrounds: actors, dancers, filmmakers or singers,” says Rima. During that period she begins writing her own plays, which were successful enough to be performed on big stages of international festivals. At the time she was already getting offers from several theaters.Since then she successfully staged numerous choreographic pieces, performances among them: “That’s by falling that we rise”, “Medieval images”, “La vita nova”, “Sinful passions”, “Hours of Visions”, “Triptych”, etc. 

In 2016 she has been invited as a resident artist at Akademie der Kunste in Berlin. As a final result of her fellowship she created “Hey, Kitty!” solo-film performance based on Anna Frank’s diary. After successful premiere in Berlin 2017 the performance has been performed in Armenia, Croatia, Italy and Poland.

In 2017 she has found “Choreography development” educational and cultural foundation aiming to support the development of contemporary dance and modern ballet in Armenia. 

Her “Woman before decision making” solo performance interpreting by herself was created in 2018 and has been performed in the renowned festivals and contests such as Stuttgart Solo Dance Contest in Germany, Unit Motives international festival in Greece, Gdansk international Solo Dance Festival in Poland, Cortoindanza international Dance festival in Sardinia, Italy, 26ª Quinzena De Dança de Almada in Portugal, 23Masdanza international contemporary dance festival in Canary Islands, Spain, Vitebsk international choreography festival in Belarus,“Cortoindanza Logos 2019” international festival, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, TanzArt Festival, Eupen, Belgium, La Biennale di Venezia 2019, Venice, Italy, etc. The performance has got various awards and prizes from above mentioned festivals and contests.

In 2019 Pipoyan was among three young choreographers who was invited to Venice Biennale to stage a dance performance with 7 professional dancers from around the world. During her artistic residency in Venice in the frame of “Biennale College Choreographers” project Pipoyan staged “What if” dance performance the world premiere of which was at the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale in Venice.

In 2020 she became “East-West Resident” artistic fellowship holder as a choreographer awarded by Creative Armenia.

In 2020, under the leadership of Rima Pipoyan, a modern dance department was opened at the Yerevan State Choreographic College. Since then, Rima has headed the department.

In 2021 on the initiative of Rima Pipoyan a new dance collaboration project was launched between Armenia and Ukraine. The main idea of realization of the project was to create long-life and reliable cultural partnership between Armenia and Ukraine. During the implementation of the project ten or more master classes were organized for the students of the classical dance department and the Armenian folk department of the State Choreographic College. Ukrainian dance classes were conducted by Vladyslav Bondar, a ballet soloist at the Kyiv Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. One of the highlights of the project was the creation of the dance performance “Me, My non-Self and I” by Rima Pipoyan. In 2022 she became an Aerowaves choreographer and presented “Me, My non-Self and I” at the Spring Forward festival in Greece among 20 selected performances out of 600. 

Today she enthusiastically teaches children to dance, writes plays herself and travels the world to perform, stage performances and give master classes. Rima is not someone, who gives up easily. Her love to dance goes far beyond just an occupation, it is her life, so she creates a space for herself to grow.

Photo by Ed Tadevossian