Robin Poitras

Robin Poitras (née Wiens (born c. 1958) 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.

Poitras co-founded New Dance Horizons in 1986 with Dianne Fraser. Her works have been presented across Canada and internationally.

In her twenties, Poitras completed a B.F.A. (Special Honours) in dance at York University.

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 Zürich.

Rouge-gorge Originally entitled Intempco (a short form of In Temporary Company), Rouge-gorge (French for "robin") is a project-based creation production company led by Artistic Co-Directors Robin Poitras and renowned visual artist Edward Poitras.

Philosophy Influences and aesthetics 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. Utopia is not a thing, a place, or a state but a process."

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 suggests that she does not set out to make political statements, she leaves it to the audience to find or not find messages in her work. 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.