About

Training in NYC

Armando Braswell is a professional dancer from Brooklyn, NY. While attending LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, he also briefly trained at the School of American Ballet and the Ailey School. Upon graduating, Armando was accepted to The Juilliard School and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance in 2006. In New York, Armando was engaged as a soloist for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet for two seasons. Combined with his time as a freelance artist, Armando was fortunate enough to work with Abdel Salaam, Roger Jeffrey, Nathan Trice, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Camille Brown, Pedro Ruiz, Micheal Blake, H. T. Chen, Pat Catterson, Matthew Rushing, Ronald K. Brown, Jessica Lang, Adam Hougland, Jill Johnson, Jacquline Buglisi and Stanton Welsh.

Performance Career in Europe

In June 2006, Armando moved to Germany to dance with Ballet Theater Munich under the direction of Philip Taylor. In 2007, Armando became a founding member of Gauthier Dance, a new resident company at Theaterhaus Stuttgart in Germany. In August 2012, Armando moved to Basel, Switzerland to join the Ballett Theater Basel as a soloist. Armando has danced ballets by Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Hans Van Manen, Paul Lightfoot/Sol León, Mauro Bigonzetti, Stijn Celis, Johan Inger, Alexander Ekman, Richard Wherlock, Christian Spuck, Richard Alston, Elliot Feld, Carolyn Carlson, Alejandro Cerrudo, Francesco Nappa, Joelle Bouvier, Itizik Galili, and Hofesh Schecter.

Teaching and Workshops

Aside from his dancing career, Armando has established himself as a guest teacher in high demand. Armando continues to give workshops and guest classes all over the world visiting The Juilliard School, The ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, The School of American Ballet, the Playground NYC, LaGuardia High School NYC, Dance Alps Festival, MOVE NYC, Tanz Frankfurt, and Bolzano Danza in Italy, to name a few. From 2010 -2012, Armando was a permanent Jazz faculty member at the New York City Dance School in Stuttgart, Germany. From 2014 – 2020 Armando was on the Modern faculty at The Basel Theater Ballet School. From 2015 – 2019, Armando was a Contemporary teacher at Migros Kultur Prozent Competition. From 2015 – 2021 Armando was the movement coach for the Opera and OperAvenir at Theater Basel. Since 2019, Armando is the Contemporary Teacher at the Prix De Lausanne. Since 2022, Armando is on the contemporary Staff at Tanz Akademie Zurich at ZhdK.

In 2015, Armando began to build an arts community in Basel where dancers of all levels and all body types could train in a supportive and professional environment. This idea has since expanded and in 2017, he and his wife Lisa founded the “Braswell Arts Center” – a space for innovation and collaboration in all art forms located in Basel, Switzerland – and in 2019, they officially founded the “Braswell Arts Association,” a non-profit arts organization dedicated to support emerging and established artists. Through arts education and exchange, Armando hopes to encourage collaboration and the creation of new works of art and to promote networking and entrepreneurship within the local and international arts community.

Community outreach

Armando’s passion for outreach first came when he was a member of his Laguardia High School’s “Touring Group“. A small group of dancers who went around to city school and did performances as a form of outreach. As part of the Gauthier Dance “Mobil Program”, Armando has danced in over 100 performances in hospitals, senior homes, and youth houses for children and the elderly throughout Europe. Armando was also teacher and choreographer for a team Project with Mercedez- Benz Bank and Theaterhaus Stuttgart called “Ready to Dance”. The project included preparing the children for a performance on a real stage. Participating were children from the Hallslag and Jim Pazzo Youth Centers. Armando is very proud to also have been a part of the the Theater Basel “Junge Haus”, a team dedicated to community arts programming for two years. In Basel Armando continues to work with children by growing his own social program at the Braswell Arts Center called “BAC Kids”.

Choreography for stage

Armando’s choreographic creations have been featured in numerous festivals and competitions. “Meet me halfway, I am searching sideways” (2007) was created for the Balletttheater München Jung Choreografen at Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. “In Passage” (2008) was a finalist in the International Competition for Choreographers in Hannover. “Push” (2009) was selected to participate in the International Solo-Dance-Theatre Festival in Stuttgart. “Duet For Six” (2008) and Pas-Varotti (2014) was created for the Noverre-Gesellschaft evening with the Stuttgart Ballet. “Mass” was created for the Manhattan Dance Company and “Likewise”(2010) for the Luca Tanz Project in Stuttgart. Armando created “On My Side” (2009) “Tight Spaces”( 2011) “The Three Little Pigs”(2011), “Pretty Ugly” (2012) and “Like Water For Chocolate”(2012) for the Gauthier Dance “Out of The Box” Series in Theaterhaus Stuttgart. In Basel Armando has created “Divertissement”(2014) and “Uneven Variations” (2017), for the Ballett Basel program, DanceLab. “Housed” (2013) and “Undone” (2016) was created for the Dance and Music Gala in Stuttgart. Armando’s created a new work that was featured at the 2016 World Expo in Milano, Italy. Armando created a new work for the Ballettschule Theater Basel at the 2017 International Conference of JURA. He also created “Duet Duet” for the IWB Filter 4 Carta Blance Dance show. He has also created multiple new works for the C.L.I.N.A.M. conference in Basel. In 2019, Armando has worked with Etavis to produce an evening of dance called “Digital Dance” in collaboration with the UWB Filter 4. Recently, Armando has created a new work for the Laguardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts.

Choreography for Television

In 2011 Armando was invited to Kiev, Ukraine as a guest choreographer for Танцюють всі!, the Ukraine version of the television show “So You Think You Can Dance”. Since then, Armando has made four creations for the television series in the Jazz and Contemporary Category. In 2012 Armando returned to the show for a solo performance on live broadcast. In 2013 Armando worked with Eliane Müller, Season two’s winner of the television show “Die grössten Schweizer Talente” (The Swiss version of “Britans Got Talent”). Armando choreographed and performed in her music video for the song “Venus and Mars”. In 2020 Armando presented “Quarantine Creation” a dance piece shown on Telebasel station on live television in Basel.

Interview En L’air and other published writings

Armando started a new interview series called “Interview En L’air”. This series consists of a short, informal interview with today’s great dance inspired artists. Interview en l’air offers a quick peek into the minds of choreographers, directors, photographers, etc. from all over the world. There are no wrong answers, simply a chance to think of the small things that make us human…and inherently great. For more info visit www.interviewenlair.com. Since 2015 Armando is a permanent correspondent for DANCE FOR YOU Magazine with his new column “Real talk with Armando Braswell”. When someone is being interviewed, they always put their best face forward. “Real Talk “ is designed to help young dancers and professionals by providing them with the whole truth about the problems faced by artists…on stage and off. In collaboration with Richard Wherlock and Theater Basel, Armando and his team ( Max Zachrisson and Ruben Dario Bañol ) creates “Inside Ballet Theater Basel” a new blog about the high quality contemporary company in Switzerland, Ballett Theater Basel. Armando continues to give live interviews and moderate events at the Braswell Arts Center and abroad.

Installations

With his installations, Armando combines art, technology and audience involvement to present high quality performance art. His work has been presented at galleries and festivals in Germany and Switzerland.

“On The Run” – a movement and sound installation. Premiere at the Kunst Im Klub Festival in Stuttgart 2011. A collaboration with Phillip Kannicht.

“Pacemaker//Emotion” – a Kinetic Sculpture. Premiere at the Kunst Im Klub Festival in Stuttgart 2012. A collaboration with composer Phillip Kannicht and photographer Joachim Riederer.

“Heart” – a new Installation. Premiere at the Kunst Im Klub Festival in Stuttgart 2013. A collaboration with Composer Phillip Kannicht, Photographer Joachim Riederer, and Dr. Permi Jhooti.

“Hueman” – a new Installation. Premiere at the Colours Festival in Stuttgart 2015. A collaboration with Composer Phillip Kannicht, Photographer Joachim Riederer, and Dr. Permi Jhooti.