Robin Poitras: Pelicans on the Prairies

As co-founder and artistic director of Saskatchewan's New Dance Horizons, choreographer Robin Poitras has created a world of dance, filled with imagery and imagination.

Under her stewardship, the Regina-based performing arts company, established in 1986, brings to the Prairies a showcase of innovative new works by established and emerging artists. In turn, New Dance Horizons has occasionally made home base the focus.

In 2002, Poitras organized “Stream of Dance,” a three-day festival held in Regina and devoted to Prairie dance that featured an eclectic blend of styles from ballet and contemporary to Aboriginal and powwow dancing. Her goal was to provide a networking venue for Prairie dance artists and familiarize the arts community from outside the region with the talent that exists there, while displaying the distinct dance sensibility that is alive and well in the rolling landscape of the Prairies.

"As artists we're always influenced by our place and time," Poitras told an interviewer. "The landscape and history, and the way the wind blows through us, all impact in elusive and sometimes obvious ways."

Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts honours degree in dance from Toronto's York University, she began her professional dance career in 1984 and has performed as a solo artist throughout Canada and Europe. Through New Dance Horizons, she has not only entertained and introduced audiences to the artistry of movement, but has engaged them as well. In addition to its exciting repertoire, the company offers dance training, workshops and artist talks.

Poitras's most celebrated creation, “The Pelican Project,” has enabled young people to discover new forms of artistic expression. Comprised of a series of workshops, participants aged 8 to 24 and professional artists from a variety of disciplines and cultural backgrounds explore the magic of art, nature and myth through movement,
sound, text, visuals and hands-on experience.

Presented at the Dance Advance Festival at Ottawa's National Arts Centre in 2003, the project culminates with The Pelican Nocturne, a spectacular lantern-lit processional performance featuring music and song, dance and, naturally, pelican costumes, which, along with the props, the workshop participants make themselves.

In Poitras's view, everyone is richer from the experience. Young people acquire a better understanding of choreography, interdisciplinary activity and the language of dance and movement. And dance artists gain the opportunity to celebrate their unique personal and cultural voices, as well as to share and exchange this understanding with others.

-  Christopher Guly