The Director and Co-founder of Jean Appolon Expressions, Jean Appolon is also a successful choreographer and teacher based in Boston and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He received his earliest training and performance opportunities in Port-au-Prince with the Viviane Gauthier Dance Company and the Folkloric Ballet of Haiti. Appolon continued his dance education in the U.S. with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Joffrey American Ballet School, graduating with a BA in 2003 from a joint degree program at The New School. Appolon teaches regularly at Boston Ballet, The Dance Complex (Cambridge, MA), and the University of Massachusetts, Boston, among other locations. Appolon was recently appointed a 2017 Brother Thomas Fellow and was also inducted to the 1804 List of Haitian American Changemakers in the U.S.
Appolon’s Boston-based Haitian Contemporary dance company has toured to Washington, D.C., Silver Springs, MD, New York City, and Port Au Prince, Haiti. JAE has also performed at major venues such as Boston’s Paramount Theater, John Hancock Hall and Silver Spring MD Civic Center, as well as in city parks and community spaces in free performances accessible to the public. JAE has been fortunate to share the stage with celebrities such as Danny Glover, Henry Louis Gates, and Edwidge Danticat.