Tiffany Mangulabnan (she/her) is a New York-based Filipino dancer, choreographer, teacher, and a founding co-artistic director of Brooklyn-based contemporary ballet company konverjdans.

Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, she began her professional career with the Philippine Ballet Theatre when she was 15, and went on to become a principal dancer with the company, performing the lead roles in full-length ballets like Swan Lake and David Campos-Cantero’s Carmina Burana, the Dew-Drop Fairy in Gelsey Kirkland and Michael Chernov’s The Nutcracker, and featured roles in the contemporary ballets of renowned Filipino choreographers Enrico Labayen, Edna Vida, Tony Fabella, Gener Caringal, Ronilo Jaynario, Julie Borromeo, Felecitas Radaic, Alden Lugnasin (for Ballet Philippines), and many others.

She moved to New York City in 2012 and spent four years performing with BalletNext under the directorship of former American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet principal dancers Michele Wiles and Charles Askegard, and helping to create original roles in ballets by choreographers like Mauro Bigonzetti, Katarzyna Kozielska, Peter Quanz, Brian Reeder, Tobin Eason, and Wiles. She has since enjoyed a rich freelance career in New York City, performing as a dancer with The Metropolitan Opera as well as with contemporary and modern ballet companies such as Gabrielle Lamb’s Pigeonwing Dance, Gleich Dances, Indelible Dance, John Passafiume Dancers, Abanar, Emery LeCrone DANCE, Claudia Schreier & Company, Trainor Dance, Terra Firma Dance, Alison Cook Beatty Dance, and Brookoff Dance Repertory Company. She has performed on several prestigious New York stages, such as The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, BAM Fisher, The Metropolitan Opera, and others. She has performed in extended runs of Brendan Fernandes’ performance-installation work, including The Master and Form at The Whitney Museum of American Art; Contract and Release at The Noguchi Museum; and Returning to Before at The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA. She stars in Robin Cantrell’s film Triptych, which won Best Screendance Short at the 2022 IMDb Independent Shorts Awards.

As a performer, she has earned praise for delivering “the most intense moment [of a piece] . . . in a thrashing solo” (The New York Times), for having “the most magnetism and spirit [among a group of performers],” and showing “improvement and more depth of character with each performance” (Broadway World).

Since co-founding konverjdans with Amy Saunder and Jordan Miller in 2016, Tiffany has choreographed several works for the stage and had some of her work performed at festivals like Battery Dance Festival, Periapsis Open Series, the Women in Dance Leadership Conference in NYC, and the Riverside Dance Festival in Vero Beach, Florida. Her choreography has been described as “strange. . . touching . . . unique and quite beautiful” (Critical Dance); “beautifully captur[ing] the struggles and tantalization of eternal beauty that women often face” (The Dance Enthusiast). Of her latest ballet, Alana Bleimman of CVNC writes:

“The entirety of the piece was utterly captivating and elicited feelings of sadness, hope, preservation, and peace. I am eager to continue following Mangulabnan's work and hope that Carolina Ballet brings her back to Raleigh's stages very soon.”

Tiffany’s work has been shown for two years in a row at Norte Maar’s CounterPointe festivals at The Mark O’Donnell Theater in Brooklyn. Her work has also been performed by Barnard College/Columbia University at New York Live Arts, by Columbia Repertory Ballet at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, by Woman in Motion Dance Co at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, and by Carolina Ballet at the North Carolina Museum of Art. In 2021, Tiffany was selected as one of four choreographers for Dance Lab New York’s Female Choreographers of Color in Ballet Lab. She has also written, directed and choreographed a handful of films, including HER PRIDE, which was screened at Earl Mosley’s 2021 'Dance is Activism' film festival, and the documentary short Behind the Puzzles Pieces, which was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 2022 Seattle Film Festival.

Tiffany is also a passionate teacher of ballet, teaching pointe and variation classes at the SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, advanced ballet at the Joffrey Ballet School in NYC, open advanced/professional ballet classes at NY Community Ballet, and adult ballet classes at Rusty Ballet in Brooklyn.

Photography by Joe Raffanti