Robin Cantrell and the Indelible Dance Company Are Playing With Their Pussies

…cats! Pussy cats!

We’re back with another Member Spotlight, because our members are FRIGGIN’ AWESOME and always worth bragging about!

This week, we’re so happy to bring back a previously featured New Stand Member, Robin Cantrell, the founder of the Indelible Dance Company. Last time we spoke was in September of last year, about their amazing project Astara.

It’d be an understatement to state that a lot has happened since — namely the election of He Who Shall Not Be Named as President — and to address some of American Voldemort’s backward policies, Robin and Indelible Dance have put their art to use to do some real good in today’s possible Matrix nightmare scenario. Hence, we have the amazing Dancer + Pussy prints, which not only look friggin’ great, but the proceeds for which are getting donated to Planned Parenthood.

So get one — or all of them — right now! Then check out our conversation below:

Can you refresh our memory on your background? Tell us about how you founded the Indelible Dance Company?

I started dancing when I was two years old, and I started dancing professionally when I was twenty two in California. I was working for a classical ballet company, doing all the major classics, which gets kind of boring after a while. So I thought I would branch out and create my own stuff. So I put on this show with my best friend in a coffee shop in San Diego, we did everything — publicity, artwork, choreography, everything. Afterwards, some of our friends came up and starting saying things like, ‘this was the best thing we’ve ever seen!’ And I knew it wasn’t, because it was a coffee shop in San Diego.

I figured the place to really do this sort of thing was in New York City, so I moved. I kept doing a lot of auditioning, got a job with a dance company, and then I thought that what I wanted was to start my own. I wanted to see what I was thinking of to exist in the world, so I thought that when I turned thirty, that’s when I’d start my own dance company. And so I did, and that was back in 2010.

All it involved, was gathering all the awesome dancers I already knew from working in lots of dance companies around NY, and involving all the other talented artists I knew — fashion designers, photographers, graphic designers, set designers, etc. — and after living in New York for a while, you’re just sort of exposed to that. There’s a lot of people who want to make something; and being young and scrappy in New York, there are a lot of people willing to collaborate with you in exchange for you making something else with them.

Tell me more about the inception for this project.

Well I was pretty horrified once the election results came in, and the whole experience of that was fear, and grief, and confusion, and that sort of gave way to ‘what action can we take?’ I’d gone to the Women’s March, and various marches around the city, I donated to different causes, I’ve written to my senator; what everybody can do. And as an artist, you’re in a special position to make something, something beautiful, that you can create better memes, better visuals.

How did you come up with this specific idea?

I was thinking what I would want my money to go to if I was able to raise my money, and I felt very strongly about Planned Parenthood, because they’ve helped me a lot in the past, and most of the dancers also had those experiences as well. And I also realized that most of the dancers also had cats. We then also realized that it’s almost impossible to photograph someone with a cat. And of course there’s the whole idea of the double entendre.

I have a friend Noah Kalina, who’s done a lot of photography for us, he’s got an interesting project called ‘Fuck Trump’ and donated the proceeds for that to the ACLU so he was definitely on board.

The whole session was wrapped up in one day, and we made it so we never had the cats overlapping, because we knew it was a nightmare for them. I feel like I ruined their lives. The amount of hair that had flown off made one giant commemorative hairball — which I could probably sell too.

All of the dancers brought their own cats, with the exception of one, I had to borrow it. It’s the one that looks the most freaked out.

You worked on Noah Kalina on your last project, Astara, can you tell me a little more about that collaboration, how it was formed, and how it’s evolved?

I met Noah, gosh, through my husband a long time ago; I did a show in 2013 called ‘Me and my Arrow’ it was based on ‘The Point’ by Harry Nilsson; it’s like a story album from the 60’s that’s pretty psychedelic.

It’s pretty much all the same dancers in the troupe since 2013, so at this point they know him, he knows them, we’ve shot all the videos and bio photos together. He shot me and my husband’s wedding photo — we’re totally naked in our backyard. It used to be that was the first pic that showed up on Google when looking for me.

Finally, is there anything else you’re working on that you’d like to hype?

I put on one like pretty epic show every year — Astara was last year’s — the next one which I’m already prepping for is in November. That’s going to be at the Mast Brothers factory in the navy yard; it’s a 60,000 foot space, and it’s going to be a sports-themed show. I’ve been doing a lot of research — people get really jazzed about sports, and nobody gets really jazzed about dance. I’ve been doing a lot of research about the brain and the studies that monitor the neurons fired in the mind, and some have found that fans have the same things firing in their brain as the athletes — it’s very a personal sensation for everyone.

I’m trying to figure out a show where people feel as invested in dance. I’ll have them come in and already split them between two teams — blue and red — have them on different sides. Have variable outcomes each night, where not even the dancers know who’ll “win.” I’ll have different sets, boxing ring, astroturf, a slip and slide, and of course we’ll have ‘Eye of the Tiger’ playing.

I can’t wait!

That’s it for this week’s Member Spotlight. Make sure you get yourself one of these kickass prints; it’ll go towards an excellent cause. And stay up to date on everything Robin and the Indelible Dance Company are up to in the near future, by following them on Instagram.