Guests: Dance researcher, teacher, and director, Carolyn Rapkievian, and artistic director and choreographer of Sassoun Dance Ensemble, Sevag Avakian.
In this episode, our guests reflect on their personal journeys and the evolution of Armenian dance across the diaspora. They explore efforts to preserve traditional forms alongside the emergence of new, diaspora-born dances, and how performance and teaching actively reshape Armenian historical memory. The conversation highlights dance as both a practice of preservation and celebration, one that carries history forward in exciting ways.
Biographies:
Carolyn Okoomian Rapkievian has been researching, teaching, and performing dance in a professional capacity for more than 30 years. She grew up dancing at Armenian family and social functions. Her directing highlights include the Washington D.C. Arev Armenian Dance Ensemble and the Arax Armenian Dance Ensemble. Her performance experience includes AGBU’s Antranig Dance Ensemble in New York, and Dancefolk and the Palamakia (Greek) Dancers in Nashville. She has studied Russian, Polish, and Hungarian dancing and continues to study ballet. In addition to Armenian dance, she has taught character ballet and ballroom dancing for dance companies, universities, and public folk festivals. She teaches Armenian dancing and international folk dancing with the Kotwica Band at monthly dances and at festivals in Maine.
Carolyn has held leadership positions in museums for over 50 years including 26 years at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. She has lectured internationally about genocides, understanding history, and the politics of cultural acknowledgement in museums. In 2018 she curated the Armenian Dance Showcase at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She currently works to document and preserve historic Western Armenian village dances in collaboration with the Houshamadyan project: https://www.houshamadyan.org/themes/dance.html
Sevag Avakian developed a passion for Armenian dance at a young age, growing up in a family deeply rooted in dance and cultural tradition. Beginning his training at the age of six, he was immersed in music and movement early on, a constant influence throughout his life. As he matured, his natural curiosity and dedication led him to independently study traditional Armenian folkloric dances, exploring their techniques and cultural and historical significance.
He is now the Artistic Director and Choreographer of the Sassoun Dance Ensemble, established in 2004 under the auspices Toronto’s Holy Trinity Armenian Church by Reverend Archpriest Father Zareh Zargarian and now operating under the Canadian Armenian Community Services Centre (Barev Centre). Over the past 22 years, the group has welcomed hundreds of members and presented annual performances featuring traditional and contemporary Armenian dances. The ensemble has performed at multicultural festivals, theatrical productions, and music videos, represented Armenian heritage at an NBA game, and appeared on major local stages including Dundas Square, the Canadian National Exhibition, and David Pecaut Square.
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