Celebrating the Women of Can Can: Shadou Mintrone

Watching Shadou Mintrone perform is like watching power, confidence, and grace perfectly personified in the most sparkly get-up you can imagine. 

What most folks may not realize, though, is that Mintrone’s power, confidence, and grace work just as hard off-stage as they do on, and that what we see on the surface is truly just the tip of this Woman of Can Can’s larger-than-life iceberg.

“I'm coming up on 10 years at Can Can now,” Mintrone shared. “And the ability that I have been granted to prove my hard work has been so empowering. I've never been told that I’m not working hard enough, but at Can Can, it's more like, ‘Hey, you work really hard, and you're really good at what you're doing. So, if you want to do more, you can.’”

From a decade's worth of show seasons to costuming her castmates, and from behind-the-scenes management to running auditions, Mintrone seems to do it all – and she truly does just keep doing more. 

Ready to get inspired? Read on to learn more.

Shadou Mintrone as Aurora in House of Hearts | Photo by Nate Watters (2023)

THECANCAN.COM: You are a woman of many hats here at Can Can! How would you describe your roles? 

Shadou Mintrone: It sort of depends on the day. I'd say primarily I am a performer, which is what I do most frequently. I'm also a costume designer, which is the next thing that takes a lot of my time. I also dabble in the management side of Can Can. I think my title is actually production manager, which goes from organizing a schedule for the year, talking with the performers, and getting rehearsals, shows, and auditions scheduled. I will talk to guest services about all of their needs. I also currently set up all the ticketing on the website, but I'm thinking of passing down the torch for that soon.

There are many different facets of the way a small business runs. We have a core team that keeps the ship floating. For example, Jonny and I both play the eyes and ears of Can Can on a day-to-day basis because we're there the most often. So, we’ll report back about how the shows are going or if we need to quickly change anything. On the creative side, Jonny, Chris, Fae, and I will sit down and brainstorm through shows and talk about options. I just love the variety of it all.

THECANCAN.COM: What was one of the most impactful challenges you’ve had to overcome as a woman in the performing arts industry? 

Shadou Mintrone: The performing arts industry is saturated with women, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are definitely more women that are involved in the performing arts than there are men. Because of that, there's this natural grouping that happens as a female performer where you then have to fit a mold, or you have to be a certain type because there are so many to choose from.

I’ve felt that since I was a kid, and again in college, too. I felt like men were getting more opportunities for scholarships than women were. During my freshman year at a performing arts college, I paired up with one of my professors because I realized that not a single female had a performance scholarship – they were only allowed academic scholarships, and I thought that was not the best way to handle it.

I understand it because even in a space like Can Can, which has a lot of women, we still need men because we have to do a lot of moves as partners and have a variety for the audience's sake. So, in general, it's a really saturated community even though there's a very finite amount of people that get to do it professionally.

Overall, and I would imagine most women in this industry feel this way, there's more competition out there because of how many women there are in dance and theater, already. There are just so many of us. Be it in the cattle call auditions of New York or L.A. where you're one of 700 women compared to the men's group where there are 15 men total. The competition is much more ferocious in that way. This is all not to say that men don't have it hard – I think there are different challenges of being a man in this industry. But, women definitely have to claw their way through to get to the front line.

Shadou Mintrone in Wonderland | Photo by Nate Watters (2019)

THECANCAN.COM: How have you found a balance between that female competitiveness and female empowerment in the performing arts industry? How do you support your own success while also supporting the women around you?

Shadou Mintrone: I think a lot of that comes with maturity as a performer. When I was younger, I had a different take on the industry of, “Why not me? Why am I not the right person?” I think as I've gotten older, that perspective has shifted, especially now being on the back end of Can Can where I'm not only a performer, but I'm also around for the hiring process. I'm helping to navigate who's chosen and what we have people do. I'm able to see through a different lens of there being a specific reason certain people are good for a job and a reason other people are better for a job. Just being aware of that has helped me get over the line because a lot of it is ego-driven, right? In an industry where there are often a lot of people saying, “No,” you have to be the person that is telling yourself, “Yes,” all the time. It can end up being dynamite, in a way, where it's explosive if you let it be. That’s a big tool that I've used. 

A place like Can can is different, though, because it is so much about female empowerment.  Can Can is about being the best version of yourself. Chris and Fae have created an environment that isn't about comparing people, especially as a performer. Audiences might compare people because that's just how we’re conditioned to watch dance and performance. We try to create an environment that's not about so-and-so next to so-and-so, but more so about how these two people on stage look great together instead of why is one person more likable than the other. That mentality helps the overall morale. That's a big issue in the industry – how do you keep morale up in a competitive environment? The personalities we have in the room also help dictate how the energy goes, especially when positive reinforcement is such a big thing. One of the best things about Can Can is that we all are nice to each other, and we're all good to each other. We're all asking each other, “How are you feeling? How was your weekend?” There's this support system that doesn't allow any negative feelings to fester. 

I've been in environments outside of Can Can that aren't that supportive or aren't as attuned to how important it is to be comrades with each other. On a certain level, we are going to battle every night trying to win over an audience. If we're not working together, it's not a healthy environment, and then the audience doesn't have a good time. 

Audience members will say to us, “You guys look like you have such a good time!” We do have a great time – it's a wonderful time up here, especially as a community.

That comment often comes up and I think it's indicative of how the environment around us is a positive one. Nothing's perfect, there are always trials and tribulations, but I would say 95% of the time or more Can Can is trying to be its best self.

THECANCAN.COM: On the contrary, how have you navigated male-dominated spaces throughout your career? 

I've been in this industry for a really long time. Sometimes I feel like I've just left high school, but other times I'm like, wow – it's been almost 15 years of me doing this professionally. No matter the job or environment, I understood that I wasn’t going to be a man on stage. For me, there wasn't any arguing that point. Instead, I was asking myself, “How do I be the best version of what I can be?” And then, within that, you have to fight the inner urge to compare yourself to other women. I remember when I moved to Seattle, my first job was in a small company, where there were six or seven of us at the time. There were only four women, and we were all so different, so it was easy not to get into the habit of trying to compare myself to another female because one of the girls dancing next to me was a foot and a half taller than me. So, there was no comparison about, “Why can't I be that?”

When I was partnering with a male once, an old boss told me, “Unless you can float or levitate, let him partner you.” I'm pretty headstrong, and I was trying to do it myself. I was trying to be like, “I don't need your help!” So he told me, “You have to let the person that's partnering you partner you. Give him the opportunity to do that so that you're not trying to prove yourself because you can't float.” I think that stuck with me. It’s not about what's fair or what's not fair. I had to get out of the mindset of fairness and into the mindset of what can I do right now to help myself and help the people around me make this art work.

As a performer and as a teacher, one of the things we can do is encourage more men to get into the industry. A lot of the time, men come into the performing arts late. They might start dancing in college or in high school, and that's pretty late in this industry. But, if we as a society encourage the art form to happen earlier, it might encourage more men to get into it, and then I think the field will even itself out by necessity or by proximity to people that have access to it. 

I don’t think it's anybody's fault that it's a male-dominated world in the arts, as a whole. It’s all about how we approach it in the future. We can't change the past, obviously. So, the best thing we can do is encourage the future, and I think a space like Can Can is the perfect example of how we can do that. Moving forward, it's not just about talent, it's about the ability of the people around you, and it's about the environment in which we create the art.

Shadou Mintrone in Bon Bon | Photo by Nate Watters (2019)

THECANCAN.COM: Can Can wouldn't be as groundbreaking as it is without its women leaders. How have you felt the most empowered in your role here at Can Can?

Shadou Mintrone: My journey at Can Can, in itself, has been the most empowering thing. When I look back on it, the day-to-day grind is a lot, and we work really hard. It's nonstop work. I'm literally Rhinestone-ing while I'm talking to you right now! That's how I know I love it. That's part of who I am – I'm a hard worker.

I'm coming up on 10 years at Can Can now, and the ability to prove my hard work has been so empowering. I've never been told that I’m not working hard enough, but at Can Can, it's more like, “Hey, you work really hard, and you're really good at what you're doing. So, if you want to do more, you can.” To supplement that, though, Chris and Fae are really good about being like, “I want to take this thing off your plate that you've taken on by necessity, let's hand this off to somebody else.” Both the encouragement and belief in me are really interesting. 

For example, I just fell into costuming. I didn't apply for it, I just volunteered to help. And then it turned into this thing that I'm super passionate about. What's really amazing for me as a performer, as a female, and just also as a human, is that I’ve gotten so many opportunities to be able to prove myself in something that maybe I didn't even realize I wanted or could do, and that goes both on and off stage.

Another empowering moment for me was over the summer when I played Rico in Lola. Out of nowhere, Chris was just like, “Hey, do you think you could rap this part?” And I was like, “I could try!” Literally, the next day I had a microphone up to my mouth and I was rapping on stage. Not to say that I was the best rapper ever, but I never would have done that anywhere else. 

Can Can is an ever-evolving job outside of just performing, which is its own ever-evolving thing because we change shows so often. We work in this constant, stressful but positive environment of change. We can constantly change what we're doing and how we do it. “There are no rules,” Jonny likes to say. The only rules are to make a great show, make a great environment, and make sure the audience leaves happy. Other than that, it's kind of up to us, which is a really empowering environment for everybody. I've gotten so many opportunities over the last 10 years to explore all the facets of Can Can – the restaurant industry, management, and marketing.

It’s a really enlightening journey as a performer because I think we are all, in a way, morbidly looking at when it’s going to end because we don't get to do this forever. Our bodies give out, and it’s often not a lifelong career on stage. You're constantly looking at your own mortality as a performer and asking yourself, “When I'm done doing this thing, what will I do?” Can Can has given me so many tools to continue with the company so that I don't ever have to stop being in the show on some level.

THECANCAN.COM: Looking into the future, what do you hope to change in your industry?

Shadou Mintrone: I think we're always on this path for equality, and I think that's like the best way to do it. It's really easy to get angry about the situation, or it's really easy to be like, “If I were a man…” I try to stay away from that because it doesn't help me process anything and I certainly don't think that it changes anything. 

I think the best way to continue to move forward is to talk about equality in the workplace, be it in my industry, in the restaurant industry, or in the world at large. How do we keep empowering everybody equally? It’s equal pay, it’s equal opportunity. It’s anything we can do as a community, as a people, to encourage girls and women to do what they want, fight for what they believe in, educate themselves, and be more than just a female body. I think it's really important to be intelligent and have wisdom and be eloquent and be able to stand up for what you believe in without, hopefully, the detriment of other people. 

I do think we're on the right path. I think it'll be a long long walk until we find equality, and maybe it’s something one person can't change on their own, but I think we all can take steps to encourage that sort of viewpoint from each other and hold each other accountable to that. The reality for women in my industry is that we probably will always have a more female-dominated pool, but it doesn't mean that you can't help each other. There's nothing good that comes out of negativity in this industry, for sure.

You can see Shadou in all of her forms and more at Can Can. Book your unforgettable evening with us today!