Robin Merchant is an internationally recognized

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

and

dance instructor Dance education is a practice whereby students are taught a broad understanding of dance as an art form or trained professionally in specific dance genres. Dance education also encompasses a research area in which scholars conduct original resear ...

. Notably, she has danced for

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

winning artists including the Black Eyed Peas, and MIA. She has choreographed China's international dance festival,

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, Stunt Mania, and

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

(India - Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa).

Career

Robin began working as a dancer, dancing on stage for several Grammy winning artists, and in movies such as Disney's, The Cheetah Girls One World choreographed by Fatima Robinson. Robin began her leadership career as a master instructor at internationally recognized dance studios such as:

Broadway Dance Center Broadway Dance Center is a dance school located at 322 West 45th Street west of Times Square in New York City. It was founded in 1984 as one of the first "drop-in" dance training schools in the world, offering classes in jazz, tap, ballet, conte ...

( NY), Pineapple Dance Studios (

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) and the

National Ballet of Canada The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca as the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 ...

. From these specialized roots, she traveled and debuted in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, bringing a high caliber of expertise and form to a market that was traditionally under represented in western styles. Robin's strong knowledge of dance quickly led her to become India's most sought after instructor in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, contemporary, and urban dance styles and allowed her to pioneer jazz funk within the country. Production houses and corporations such as

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Lay's Lay's is a brand of potato chips, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay because both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the Frito-Lay company, which has b ...

, and

Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...

began vying for Robin's

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

for their Indian TV commercials. Given the extraordinary demand that India generates for new art forms, Robin also established a dance institute in Mumbai. It specialized in western technique, and those that trained at her studio became some of the most sought after dancers in the country.

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

cinema took notice and Robin was commissioned to choreograph dance songs within hit films such as "

Game (2011 film) ''Game'' ( hi, गेम) is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Abhinay Deo and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani of Excel Entertainment. It stars Abhishek Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Sarah-Jane Dias, Gauahar ...

" and reality TV shows such as

(India). Now as a seasoned artist, Robin travels frequently bringing her unique perspective of multimedia, dance and technique to the rest of the world. RobinM

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merchant, Robin Canadian choreographers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian women choreographers