Robin Poitras
Robin Poitras is a Canadian dancer, performance and installation artist based in Regina, Saskatchewan, who has been actively engaged in contemporary dance practice since the early 1980s.
One of Saskatchewan's most prolific dance and performance creators, Poitras co-founded New Dance Horizons in 1986 with Dianne Fraser. Through her research in diverse fields of artistic and somatic practice, Poitras developed a unique interdisciplinary approach. Her works have been presented across Canada and internationally.
Early life and education
Robin Poitras is the second child of architect Clifford Wiens and artist and educator Patricia Wiens. The family visited art galleries, attended powwows, and played music at home. She said she began her artistic life studying the cello but always loved to dance.In her twenties, Poitras completed a B.F.A. in dance at York University, where she came to feel disillusioned and discouraged with her program, until the day Paul-André Fortier made an appearance:
I was getting really frustrated. I felt I wasn't getting enough of the "art" of dance... One day Paul-André came to guest-teach, and all we did was walk. I thought, "Wow, this is so exciting." It became a real turning point for me, and I decided to stay in the program based on that experience. I remember saying, "Can you imagine dancing with someone like that someday?"
Poitras undertook further studies at Duke University, the American Center in Paris, and the Bill Evans Summer Institute of Dance in Winnipeg in 1984. She also studied in Montreal and Zurich.
Career
Poitras began her professional dance career with Regina Modern Dance Works in 1984.New Dance Horizons
In 1986, Poitras co-founded Saskatchewan's only professional dance company, New Dance Horizons, with Dianne Fraser, a nationally recognized project-based company mandated to support the creation, development, production and presentation of contemporary dance and related performing arts in the province featuring national, international, regional and local Canadian artists, often contracting with visiting dancers. Over time, the not for profit company developed a relationship with a local hotel providing sponsorship, allowing the organization to do unplanned events. New Dance Horizons was consciously organized into three distinct "strands".Rouge-gorge
Originally called Intempco, Rouge-gorge is a project-based company dedicated to the original work of the two artistic directors.A foundation for creation, production and touring, it also supports co-productions with local and national dance artists. At least one new original work has been produced each season, including the Pelican Project, a series of processional performances by youth as well as established and emerging artists.In the mid 2000s, the company moved into its own building on Harvey Street, including a box office, fifty-seat theatre and administration space.
Philosophy
Influences and aesthetics
Poitras, who believes the purpose of art is to "make the invisible in our lives visisble", has read the ancient Greek philosopher Plato and draws on his ideas of being and becoming ("static perfection" versus "the flow of things, the transformation from one state to another", as developed in the Republic, but unlike Plato, her utopian ideal "would be characterized by change, development and exploration"; utopia in the usual sense would "never be achieved, because it is always evolving and never finished. Utopia is not a thing, a place, or a state but a process." For her, this notion is represented in dance by the concept of "centre arch", as developed by Amelia Itcush, a founding member of the Toronto Dance Theatre: a "nowhere place" or "moving place" in the foot, "that place where the weight of the body moves downward into the ground and the force of the body moves upward into space", a notion underscoring the idea of dance "as a flow or a process of movement rather than a series of fixed positions."Creative process and practice
Poitras contrasts other forms of the utopian Platonic idea reflected in the history of dance, citing the Romantic classical ballet in which the ballerina sought to "float" above the floor "as though gravity did not exist" with her own practice, which involves "working with the forces of intentionality and gravity to discover what the limits of action might be."Eschewing an ideal body type along with other traditional facets of classical dance, Poitras selects dancers solely based on their skills, and likes to work with children and older people as dancers, "mixing the professional and the amateur", and often makes use of improvisation, found or formed objects, texts, images, sound and/or other media. She constantly explores what might be possible to achieve.
Poitras once said that incorporating somatic movement in her practice probably extended her career. "I think that that work really allowed me to be able to dance longer," she said.
Critical assessment
Alex MacDonald reported that some observers find certain pieces by Poitras "challenging", which she believes is a "legitimate function" of art, and that some could also be interpreted as being "political", to which she responded that she does not "set out to make political statements."Accolades
Robin Poitras is a recipient of the 2016 Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award, the 2006 Mayor's Awards for Business & The Arts' Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2004 YWCA Women of Distinction Award for the Arts.Personal life
Family
The Wiens had six children. The family visited art galleries, attended powwows, and played music at home. Robin Poitras is second of the six children. She inherited all of her father's books as well as a violin and mandolin.Her brother Nathan Wiens is a naturalistic designer, best known as a craftsman of custom wood furniture pieces based in Vancouver.
Marriages
Robin Poitras collaborated with her Métis artist husband Edward Poitras in several performance-based works as early as 1984 with Das Cheval Dance. These collaborations have continued since the couple's divorce.She is married to Tim Murphy.