My mother learned French later, so mostly thanks to her I learned Armenian. When I was in Brussels, there were very few Armenians, no people from Armenia at all. My parents were very fond of everything Armenian, thanks to them I grew up a good Armenian. At the age of 20 she decided to go to America for university education, went through Europe, met my father in Brussels and neither went to America nor entered university. My mother, Mano Petrossian Devletian, was an Iranian-Armenian from Tehran. My father was engaged in the cigarette business.

And my father’s mother was a survivor of Trabzon massacres.

His father had left Constantinople before the Genocide because he felt that the situation was not good. My father, Noubar Devletian, was born in Brussels. After the 1988 earthquake, I staged a play dedicated to Armenia with the music of Aznavour and others.

I had hundreds of students, from 5-6 years old to 40 years old and over.Īt the end of the year, we always showed my performances in the graduation events. Yes, in parallel with the Conservatory, I managed the Seda Devletian Papazian Dance School in Paris for about 20 years. It was a very successful performance, everyone loved it. I was dancing solo, Gerard was dancing a shalakho, and at the end we all were dancing the kochari at the heroes’ wedding. We used to tell fairy tales to the children in French. Our most successful work was “The Princess of Armenia,” which we performed in French and Armenian schools. We performed in Belgium and France (Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg and in 1988 at the Festival of Avignon). When I met the dancer and musician Gerard Madilian, we formed the “Armen Dance” duo and started staging and presenting Armenian dance performances. I taught for almost 20 years, and at the same time I started dancing in the Armenian “Nairi” dance group. At the age of 20, I graduated with a degree, went to Paris, got married, and began teaching ballet at the Conservatory of 16th arrondissement of Paris. Nevertheless, I have occasionally appeared on stage in various performances, including classical and modern ballet, as well as in opera performances, such as Wagner’s “The Valkyrie.” After school, I went to Antwerp, where I studied for two years at the school of the Royal Ballet of Flanders, which specializes in training ballet teachers. My parents did not agree to my becoming a dancer, they did not like that atmosphere, but they did not mind me being a dance teacher, considering it a more acceptable job. Maurice Bejart’s dancers also trained in the same building. I have always loved dancing, but when I was 14 years old, I started to dance seriously and every day after school I went to a dance class at the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie in Brussels. Seda, I am glad to have found another Diaspora Armenian figure in dance. What was more interested me is Seda being a dance teacher in the past, so our next meeting was not too late, during which the following conversation ensued. I appreciated that a repatriate who does not read Armenian fluently (yet speaking fluent Western Armenian), obtained the book. YEREVAN - I got acquainted with Seda Devletian Papazian, a Belgian-Armenian now living in Yerevan, at the presentation of my book about Rouben Mamoulian.

Spark in the dark mesa arts festival