Robin Poitras CM (née Wiens (born c. 1958)[1] is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, performance and installation artist based in Regina, Saskatchewan, who has been actively engaged in contemporary dance practice since the early 1980s.
[5] Poitras undertook further studies at Duke University, the American Center in Paris, and the Bill Evans Summer Institute of Dance in Winnipeg in 1984.
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.
[11] Poitras, who believes the purpose of art is to "make the invisible in our lives visible", 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.
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.
[16] Her brother Nathan Wiens is a naturalistic designer, best known as a craftsman of custom wood furniture pieces based in Vancouver.