We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rachel Repinz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rachel below.

Alright, Rachel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Right now I’m working with my interdisciplinary dance-based company, RACHEL:dancers (pronounced Rachel and dancers), to create a new evening-length work that uses a multi-sensory approach to integrating access systems (like audio description) into dance performance. It’s really exciting because it’s the first time I’m truly integrating my scholarly work with my artistic practice at such a deep level. I’m working with a cast of musicians, dancers, and access professionals to create an immersive performance experience that really pushes against the norms of access and performance to create something new.

What’s been most exciting for us is considering how we can bring the audience into our world(s). While dance is the base for our work, we are also experimenting with live cooking, improvised/co-created musical scores, spoken word/audio description, American/Black American Sign Language, and more! I’m excited to see how the work fully manifests when we perform in Spring 2024 as part of our premiere split-bill with Enya Kalia Creations, another NYC-based dance company.

Rachel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Rachel Repinz and I create multi-sensory dance-based works about the little things! Through this work my company, RACHEL:dancers, builds performance worlds that support a disability aesthetic and knowledge systems through an investigation of shared experience. We work as a cast of interdisciplinary collaborators, exploring a multitude of performance modes: dance, music, spoken word, writing, video, and more! This company is part of a larger project, Bashi Arts, which I co-direct with Enya-Kalia Jordan. This collaborative project centers on three goals: providing a platform for emerging artists, creating pre-professional opportunities for NYC students, and serving as an incubator for experimental Contemporary movement artists through the work of Enya Kalia Creations and RACHEL:dancers

If you’re interested in finding out more information, you can check out racheldeforrestrepinz.com!

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

My primary goal is to support and uplift the work of other disabled artists like myself. I truly believe that the disabled community creates unique and powerful ways of knowing and navigating the world. In addition to this goal, I am also passionate about creating equitable spaces for femme-identifying NYC and Philadelphia-based dance artists to create and engage in dance works. I hope to contribute to a professional dance landscape that is sustainable and equitable for many generations to come.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think the most important thing is ensuring our artists are able to pursue career paths that center their health (both socio-economically and somatically) and are sustainable. The arts are the foundation of our culture and provide spaces for us to connect organically as humans. If these spaces are not protected and funded, we lose out of the amazing things that emerge from them.

Contact Info:

• Website: racheldeforrestrepinz.com
• Instagram: @rachelanddancers

Image Credits
Photos by: Mike Hurwitz, Stewart Villio, Brian Mengini, Bruce Fox, and maura nguyen donohue.