&
Friday, May 30 | 7:00 PM
Saturday, May 31 | 12:00 PM
Sunday, June 1 | 12:00 PM
Exhibition Park, 81 London Rd W
Inclement Weather Location: Quebec St Mall, 55 Wyndham St N
Photo above of Thomas Oberlin by Tse Luk
Attendance is pay-what-you-can, by donation.
ABOUT THE WORK
“&, is a solo dance work created collaboratively by Robin Poitras and Edward Poitras”.
& began in 2015 and, like many of Edward Poitras and Robin Poitras’s collaborative creations & is part of a larger body of works that the duo continues to reimagine with each new context and performer who embodies their works.
Edward Poitras and Robin Poitras have worked collaboratively for over four decades and have created a body of dance-based performance solo and group works that have been presented across Canada. The Poitras duo has worked collaboratively and in concert with other collaborators for over four decades. In the early 1980’s they embarked on a collaborative creation process that continues today. Edward and Robin’s individual and duo streams of unconsciousness and consciousness are the root of all their creations. Their interest in history, myth, and legends is often a thread in their creations. The Myth of Sisyphus was central to Robin’s early research for &.
& began in the studio with Robin as the performer. To date, the work has been performed and informed by each of the performers who have embodied the work including: Robin Poitras, Marcus Merasty, Ben Kamino, Zeus Gonzales and Thomas Oberlin.
An early version & was performed by Marcus Merasty in the summer of 2020 outdoors on NDH SECRET GARDENS SUMMER STAGE. In the winter of 2023, & was featured as part of a triptych production entitled, THIS & the last caribou at the PUSH Festival in Vancouver, and the same year, in the spring of 2023, the solo was reimagined for students of the School of Contemporary Dancers professional dance program in Winnipeg. In the summer of 2024, &, was featured in gardens across the city of Regina as part of New Dance Horizons, Secret Gardens Tour.
THIS & the last caribou is a series of three works; each of them explores our place in relationship to history and nature.
THIS, is a meditation on loss and recovery. It portrays a woman drifting alone on a carpet of ice, separated from her bundle of fur…
& depicts a dream sequence featuring a barebacked character, a rock, and a red skirt enveloped in waves.
the last caribou, is an ode to love and loss in our tragic times, a duo of song and echo, pairing a caribou dancer and their shadow.
From the acclaimed Regina-based company, New Dance Horizons
New Dance Horizons Rouge-gorge Creation Projects, THIS & the last caribou demonstrate the integral role they play in strengthening the Saskatchewan dance community.
CHOREOGRAPHY
Robin Poitras C.M. & Edward Poitras
PERFORMER
Thomas Oberlin
ORIGINAL SOUND
Gary James Joynes
ABOUT THE CHOREOGRAPHERS
Robin Poitras C.M. is one of Saskatchewan’s most prolific dance and performance creators. Creating dance, performance and installation works, she has been actively engaged in contemporary dance practice since the early 80s. For many years Robin has traversed the formal worlds of dance and performance art. She co-founded New Dance Horizons in 1986, with Dianne Fraser where she continues to act as Artistic Director. With an interest in research into diverse fields of artistic and somatic practice she has developed a unique interdisciplinary approach. Robin’s works have been presented across Canada, in Spain, France, Germany, Mongolia and Mexico. She is a recipient of the 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, 2021 recipient of the Order of Canada, 2016 Lieutenant Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2006 Mayor’s Awards for Business & The Arts’ Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2004 Women of Distinction Award for the Arts.
Edward Poitras is a member of the George Gordon First Nation and resident of Treaty Four Territory. He is an artist who has always recognized his mixed heritage –Métis/Cree/Saulteaux – as a powerful source of energy, creativity and contradiction. Poitras was born in 1953 in Regina. In 1974 he studied with Sarain Stump at the Indian Art Program at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where he was introduced to diverse artistic and philosophical approaches that continue to inform his art practice. In 1975–76, Poitras attended Manitou College in La Macaza, Quebec, where Mexican Aboriginal artist Domingo Cisneros imparted an experimental approach to materials and introduced Poitras to the Quebecois performance art scene. Following this time in Quebec, Poitras taught at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College and at the University of Manitoba. During much of the 1980s, he taught at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, University of Regina (now First Nations University of Canada). Poitras worked as a graphic designer for New Breed Magazine in the 1980s. Poitras has since remained connected to his community, exhibiting with and mentoring emerging artists through his involvement with groups including Tribe Inc. (Saskatoon), Sâkêwêwak Artists’ Collective (Regina), and New Dance Horizons (Regina).
ABOUT THE PERFORMER
Thomas Oberlin is a Dancer and Choreographer from Treaty One territory in Winnipeg Manitoba. Thomas is a recent graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancer’s Senior Professional Program and has received his BA Honours in Dance from the University of Winnipeg! Through SCD, Thomas has had the opportunity to perform in Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers Emerging Artist Initiative for the past three seasons, perform in New Dance Horizon’s Stream of Dance Festival & Secret Garden Tour in Regina, and train at Summer Arts Blast Off intensive in Toronto! Recently, Thomas and co-creator Nat Sluis have been hard at work starting Aggregate Dance Co, a Contemporary Dance company with goals of connecting artists of the Canadian Prairies with each other and beyond! Also a teacher and choreographer at multiple studios, Thomas is passionate about sharing Contemporary dance with people of all ages and skill levels, whether it’s through class or performance. Recent projects include: WCD’s 60th Anniversary Tribute to Rachel Browne, Aggregate Dance Co’s Phantom Dances for Nuit Blanche Winnipeg, Botany in Motion Arts Festival, and Pe-Kiyoke Arts Festival.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
NDH / Rouge-gorge is a project-based creation production company led by Co-Artistic Directors Robin Poitras C.M. and renowned visual artist Edward Poitras. Launched in 2009, Rouge-gorge is a foundation for research, creation, production, and touring. The company produces contemporary dance and performance works by Robin Poitras C.M., Edward Poitras, and guest artists. Traversing between fields of dance and performance art, Robin’s work brings elements of visual and performance art into an inseparable arena. Intense collaboration with artists in dance, theatre, visual, music and performance art is a mark of Robin’s creative practice.