Robin Poitras

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.[8][9] Over time, the not for profit company developed a relationship with a local hotel providing sponsorship, allowing the organization to do unplanned events.[9] New Dance Horizons was consciously organized into three distinct "strands".[4]

Originally called Intempco (a short form of In Temporary Company),[10] Rouge-gorge (French for "robin") is a project-based company dedicated to the original work of the two artistic directors (now of Robin Poitras alone).[4]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.[11]

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."[11] 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."[11]

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."[11]

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,[11] found or formed objects, texts, images, sound and/or other media.[2] She constantly explores what might be possible to achieve.[11]

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.[5]

Robin Poitras is a recipient of the 2016 Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award,[12][2] the 2006 Mayor's Awards for Business & The Arts' Lifetime Achievement Award,[2] and the 2004 YWCA Women of Distinction Award for the Arts.[2][6]

The Wiens had six children.[13] The family visited art galleries, attended powwows, and played music at home.[4] Robin Poitras is second of the six children.[14] She inherited all of her father's books as well as a violin and mandolin.[15]

Her brother Nathan Wiens is a naturalistic designer, best known as a craftsman of custom wood furniture pieces based in Vancouver.[16][17]

Robin Poitras collaborated with her Métis artist husband Edward Poitras in several performance-based works as early as 1984 with Das Cheval Dance.[18] These collaborations have continued since the couple's divorce.[19]

She is married to Tim Murphy.[13][20]

Poitras is a birdwatcher, but says she does not know the birds' names.[21]